


We'll Stir the Stars

by Latios



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Centaurs, Dragon!Keith, Fae & Fairies, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, M/M, Mermaids, Seawitch!Lance, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-14
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-08-14 22:46:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 50,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8031910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Latios/pseuds/Latios
Summary: Lance is somewhat of a talent in a family full of sea witches; His usual days consist of practicing his element, flirting with mermaids, and helping his mother brew potions for the local myths around the island.Finding an injured and stubborn dragon named Keith isn't part of that routine, but definitely changes it—and sends him travelling across the sea to recover the dragon's one and only family who was captured by hunters.Lance only hopes they won't bite each other's heads' off before they even get there.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I'm very sorry I've been distant lately with my writing— as in, i haven't touched a keyboard in over two months (yikes) but I fell in love with voltron and specifically Keith and Lance, and just had to write another fantasy fic. ;33
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

“Just remember to stay on the path, and don’t follow any strangers! Oh, and—”

“I’ll be back later, Ma. And I’ll stick to the trail.” He assures, for hopefully the last time—as he’s been trying for twenty continuous minutes to leave the house now. But he can’t blame her for worrying. There’s been some shady people that have visited the island, lately. 

“Just be safe Lance, I’m serious! You know what kind of things are out there—don’t get in over your head and mess with anything dangerous now.” She scolds, trying to push a hat onto his head, muttering about protection from the sun as Lance pushes her hands away.

“Danger is my middle name, don’t worry.” He smirks.

“Lance!” She scolds, batting his arm. He just laughs, dodging past her arms and kisses her cheek.

“Stop worrying so much! I’ve gone this route a thousand times, and It’s not like I can’t protect myself, right?” as if to show proof, he pulls moisture from the air and swirls it into a giant blob in the palm of his hand, before sharpening it into a sharp slab of ice with a twirl of his fingers, and back into a blob of water. He grins at her, proud.

His mother looks unimpressed by the display, but instead of saying anything, she just raises her own hand in a flicking motion, and the water goes _splat_ all over his face.

His siblings laugh from the hall, and he turns sharply to see them peeking around the corners, and glares harshly, although the water dripping from his bangs and nose isn’t exactly _threatening._

“Work on your magic,” His mother deadpans. “Then I’ll feel safe with you leaving.”

He sighs. “...got it, Ma.”

~

Lance walks along the beach and toward the forest, grumbling about _‘mom says to learn better magic, what does she know about ice magic? She doesn’t have ice magic.’_ under his breath, while pulling the ocean tides in with his hand a little harsher than necessary at his side. If his mom was watching from the window, maybe then she would see his progress.

His whole family was composed of sea witches, His mother from the sea itself and his father a land dweller who dabbled in the craft, and had a knack for it. Every member of the family could control the waves with the lift of a finger, or heal others with the properties of water, or at _least_ influence some rain and storms to happen. They all had a gift of some sort.

Lances gift?

He could move the waves, and pull moisture out of the air—and freeze it, in small quantities. But he could improve the amount of water with practice, probably.

He didn’t have as talented healing powers with water as his mom, or natural fighting instincts with the element like his dad, but he could learn it in time.

His oldest brother got the short end of the heritage stick, and ended up only being able to influence fish to do his bidding or send messages, but that was also pretty cool, he had to admit. _He_ wanted a personal sea messenger.

The only reason they moved to a secluded beach was simple. They needed privacy to work on their talents, and normal humans would freak if they saw stuff like this. Also—they couldn’t help the local myths if they were in public, like mermaids with tail injuries and sea monsters with the flu.

But, well, he can’t say it’s a boring life. He likes it a lot. As if waking up to a mermaid on the reef outside his bedroom window is anything to _complain_ about.

The problem was the damn hill, closer to that inactive volcano that’s been there for who knows how long—had all the right herbs and ingredients for the healing potions his mother loved to make for the locals growing right alongside it, always unpicked and growing wildly. It was probably better than when his mother sent him down to the reefs for seaweed and other weird ocean plants, though. this way he could at least breathe.

They didn’t leave the island much--or, at all, really--it was just his dad. He left and bought supplies, while the rest could be gathered themselves on their little private island. So the only news he heard of the world was from travelling mermaids and creatures with wings who stopped to visit, either clients or just visitors, Lance lapped up all the information like a sponge.

Lately, all he heard from his mothers’ clients was this: Hunters were on the rise, and trying to take down anything supernatural they could get their hands on, selling them for a high price if they were caught, or at least capturing them. There were many disappearances as of late.

This lead to many more injuries, and therefore more work for his mother. But it’s not like he was happy about this--this was tragic. He had friends who were in hiding because of what was happening, and it’s not like he could do much to stop it.

His only way to contribute, for now, was picking the necessary supplies for his mother's’ potions.

~

When he’d gathered all the herbs his mother had requested, (Lemon balm, Lavender, rosemary, feverfew, marigold--just how low did she let her stock run?) he makes his way back down the mountainside.

“Why does she even need these?” He mumbles to himself. “She’s not a green witch, she should work more with things from the sea, or by the beach. That stuff’s only a few feet away…” He grumbles. Earlier, he had thought he'd much rather do the hike uphill, but now, he was exhausted, and after only a few minutes, he had to walk _back down._

The walk down is usually boring and quiet.

Except for this time—He notices something.

He’s walked this trail since he was eight years old, and even today and he never saw that weird scorch line leading down the wrong side of the hill, charcoal burning up the grass beside it.

He might’ve missed it on his way up…. Or it just appeared in the time he was dawdling and shoving herbs into a bag.

His life never had any drastic changes, so curiosity gets the best of him, of course. His mother's warning words flow through his ears like a mantra.

_Stick to the trail,_

_Stick to the trail,_

_**Stick to the trail.** _

Stepping forward, he ignore the echoes in his head.

He’d be fine.

~

He was definitely _not_ fine.

The trees alongside the hill were on _fire_ , for crying out loud. 

He doesn’t know what did this, but he doesn’t worry about that, heart in his throat. He kills the fires by pulling water from the air—and suddenly is he thankful they are so close to the seaside, the air thick with humidity.

The fires go out with a quiet sizzle, and smoke and the smell of burning grass fill the vicinity, and he coughs for a while, fanning the front of his face while trying to keep his eyes from watering at the grey smoke filling his lungs.

Upon closer inspection, he realizes that the fires were solidly in this area, and even the ground was scorched in a large circle, grass burnt away and the dirt black like coal.

_What could have done this?_

And just like being summoned by his thoughts alone, he hears a low growl behind him, in the thick of the trees. There’s nothing behind him, but he can’t exactly run out randomly with all the smoke in the air. He can’t _see_.

He backs up against a tree, stepping softly to avoid too much noise. _What was that thing?!_ And just what kind of beast did he trudge in on?

And just as he thinks the coast is clear, silence dragging on for a long moment as the smoke fades out, a screech reaches his ears, and suddenly there’s a tremor running down his spine caused from above.

The thing was on the tree he was against.

He backs off of it in a hurry, watching as the trees shake and rumble the ground around him as the thing jumps from the tops, growling all the while.

“Show yourself!” He yells. Why did he yell? Oh my God, _why did he yell at it?!_

And just as beckoned, Lance sees the dark, scaled, serpent-like creature curl itself around the tree as it spirals downward, sharp claws holding itself steady in the bark, wings tucked in safely at its back—

_Wings?_

Oh, no, _wings._

He had messed with a dragon, of all creatures.

Of all of the things he could have intruded on and bothered, his curious ass decided to pick one of the less sensible beasts of the world, and definitely a hotheaded kind of soul that wouldn’t stop to ask Lance if he needed directions home and accept a heartfelt apology. He was _so_ doomed.

Lance gulps his heart back down, hoping it doesn't just stop beating altogether. And then he feels the blood drain from his face as he realizes another thing.

This was it’s nest. 

As he looks closer, he realizes it's not just a dark dragon. It’s got purple, red tinted scales that almost sparkle in the little rays of light like chrome, and for a dragon, it’s definitely not as huge as he thought it would be. Maybe a child? It still could be older than his grandmother.

But even if the size wasn’t intimidating, the look on it’s face sure was. The long teeth and that hissing tongue, plus the steam coming out in severe puffs from it’s nose.

It was going to charge, and Lance wasn’t going to stick around.

As he runs, the dragon shoots a lava-like liquid fire at him that misses Lance by an inch or two, and starts burning through the tree behind him like paper.

The air is too hot for collecting moisture, but he tries his best with what he’s got, and it ends up being a few measly palms worth of water, which he turns into ice darts, and tosses toward the dragon without much skill. 

He misses, of course, skewering the bark of the tree under the dragon. 

It hisses louder—a battle cry.

The dragon commences chase, and Lance weaves through the trees, trying to distract it with obstacles, but it’s smart. _Of course it is, though, it’s probably thousands of years old, or something._ Hell if he knows how dragons age, but they weren’t easy to trick or throw off, for certain.

The dragon gets tired of games, apparently, and dives right for him, nails sharp and ready for plucking his beautiful blue eyes out.

He tries again with the ice darts, but there’s more fire surrounding them now, and he definitely can’t make any _ice_ in the vicinity. 

Instead, he ends up just throwing globs of hot water at the creature's face, and it’s just enough of a distraction to run right around the thing, towards the opening of the forest.

The serpent runs after him, and he can’t mess up now. The air is clear enough to pull out enough water to make another dart of ice, and he looks behind him only for a moment before tossing it towards its wing, but lands it on the shoulder. He keeps running, praying the thing doesn’t follow him home.

Well, he knows that it hurt it, for sure. The scream the dragon lets out is brutal, and probably rang clear across the whole island. He squints and clutches his ears, while running.

But suddenly he’s toppling, and lands smack on his front, quickly turned over with a heavy weight on his chest—kind of light for a dragon, in his opinion—but tough claws pin him down and _no he won’t cry, but he’s so sorry for not listening to his mother, not heeding his mom’s warning, He really needed to learn to listen years earlier, it would have saved him so much trouble—_

He closes his eyes and waits, only that… the blow doesn’t come. Or maybe it did, and he’s just dead already. He starts to think he didn’t when a drop of something... warm falls on his face, and the claws loosen around his arms, simply holding him in place. But the painful points are still there, grazing.

There’s panting, heavy breathes from above that kind of smell like smoke to Lance as well.

He hesitantly opens one eye.

There’s a _guy_ on top of him. An angry looking one at that. With long, drenched black hair and blood running down his arm onto Lance. He’s got wings. And Luckily, he’s wearing clothes, even though they were tattered to hell.

“You didn’t need to throw darts, asshole.” he says, voice deep and still somewhat feral.

Oh.

_Oh._

He forgot dragons could use a human skin, too.

_Well. This is awkward._

“I’m sorry?” he asks like a question, wiping away the water that dropped onto his face, still wide-eyed and—no, no, _wait a minute._ He was not sorry about this **at all.**

“No—You were trying to light me on fire, I was totally right to do that!” He points to the shoulder. “It was defense!”

The dragon’s fiery gaze softens, if only a bit. “I thought you were a hunter.” He grunts, looking away. “I was just trying to keep safe.”

“A hunter?” Lance asks, and at the angry, still gaze he receives, he continues to ramble. “And can you get off me? You’re kind of heavy.”

“Oh. Sorry.” 

He wasn’t expecting the other to be this… docile. If that’s what he could call it. He kinda thought the dude would rip him a new one after he had him pinned, but guess not. 

The dragon-boy untangles himself from Lance quickly, and a bit roughly, but he pulls himself a good foot away from Lance after that, hovering awkwardly in a sitting position, wiping blood off his arm, then frowning at the smudge it leaves on his skin. 

He’s charming, in a weird, mystical way. He smells like crisped firewood, or at least like burning leaves, and there’s this kind of heat radiating off his skin, but why wouldn't he? He could produce fire.

His hair is matted to hell, but it still oddly looks soft if only the guy would use a hairbrush. He’s got weird eyes, too. A light mauve-ish grey, and definitely bright and reflective like a cats’, now that he’s looking clearly. They went along with the stray patches of scales along his skin in random bursts, a light grey with a purple reflective hue, only really noticeable if he was close. Which Lance kind of was. 

He looked like he was Lance’s age.

The skin morphed into scales more in places he was injured, like stray burns along his arms and the arrow to the shoulder. Maybe he couldn’t hold a transformation where injuries were?

Then Lance sees the giant hole in Keith’s very visible wings, as to confirm the thought, because those definitely didn't match the whole 'human' appearance he was trying to go with.

“How’d that happen?” Lance asks, pointing to the injury. The boy’s eyes follow that finger as it approached him, with wide, scorching eyes, as if his hand was _offensive_ or something. Lance pulls his hand back down to his side.

_Alright. No touching, then._

The dragon huffs. “Hunter. I told you.”

“How’d you get away?” Lance asks, tracing the injury, still fresh, with his eyes.

“Not sure,” The other huffs a sad laugh.”I was only… looking for someone. I’m not too well off, though, since I can’t fly anymore. I don’t even know how I made it this far.” he frowns, and looks right at Lance with guilt in those cat-like eyes. “I didn’t mean to attack you. I thought _you_ were the hunter.”

“Me?!” Lance shrieks. The Dragon winces. “I’m a sea witch! Couldn’t you smell it?” He thought dragons were supposed to have _good_ noses. What the hell.

The other shrugs. “Adrenaline, I guess. Messes with my perception.” he scratches at his knee, where the skin is rubbed kind of raw, along with eighty percent of the rest of his body. How did he not look to be in pain, after all the injuries he was harboring? “I knew you weren’t a hunter when you threw water at me. After that, I was only chasing you to apologize. You kept running, though…” He almost looked shy as he looked down at his knees again.

“Can you really blame me for running?” Lance sighs, and runs a hand through his soot and smoke covered hair. 

The guy growls. “Not really. But that’s all I came here to say, so,” He stands up, and looks fine, but Lance can see the limp he tries to hide as he steps back, and the wince in his eyes when he says: “Bye, then.”

Lance acts on instinct after that. He doesn’t want him to leave. He holds a hand out for shaking. 

“I’m Lance.” 

The guy glares at Lance’s hand like it tried to set him on fire. “...and I’m leaving.”

He turns away, only for Lance to touch the injured wing, emitting a growl from the dragon. A warning. He glares back at Lance, and Lance holds his hands up in surrender. He was only trying to prove a point, anyway.

“You’re hurt.”

“No shit,” the other says, walking away. “I can lick my own wounds though, thank you. I’ll be going now.”

Lance snorts. This guy wasn’t bad, but he still was kind of an ass. “Come on. Where are you going to go? You said it yourself, you can’t fly anymore. Do you think wounds like that fix properly on their own without stitches? You could have a hole in your wing forever. How will you fly then?”

The dragon stops walking at his words, but doesn’t turn to face him. “...I’ll be fine. It’s not it’s your problem, and I have need to leave. I can solve my own issues.”

“Can you, though?” Lance growls. “It looks like it hurts for you to _walk_ right now—”

“Leave it alone.” he finally turns, looking at Lance with an annoyed fury as he growls. “I don’t have time to play around, i have to--”

“Come with me,” Lance interrupts. “My mom can fix your wing, I promise” 

At the guys’ annoyed glance, Lance holds out his hand again. “We’ll keep you safe, okay? Until the coast is clear of the hunters, or whatever. You’ll be better protected with me than in the open like this. And then you can go off and do what you want. But do you _really_ want to lose your ability to fly well because you’re hasty to get going?” He asks. At Keith’s strong, unwavering gaze, he adds, “You can trust me.”

What was he even doing? Did he really want a dragon in his house turning everything into a bonfire? No. Did he really want this big iguana trailing scales and blood all over his mom's carpet and suffer her groundings for a whole month? Double no.

But as he looks at the dragon he can’t help but feel some sort of pity, even if the guy doesn’t seem to want it. He wouldn’t want to be alone if he were the one in hiding, but maybe this guy doesn’t either. Maybe he’s just really good at hiding it.

Or keeping up a good front.

All he knows is it sucks to be alone, and he can’t leave this dragon in good conscience when seeing how hurt and _afraid_ he is, no matter how he tries to hide it.

The dragon looks at his hand again, and back up to Lance’s eyes, finally speaking after an insufferably long moment--voice deep and clear. “I don’t need your protection.”

“I didn’t say you did!” Lance almost yells. What was with this guy?!

“But,” he says a bit softer. “I could… _probably_ … use some help. With my wing.” He frowns, but reaches out a burnt and scaly hand to twine it with Lance’s, who tries not to jump at the very warm reptile touch in his palms. He could even feel the stray scales brushing him. It was oddly intriguing.

“Keith.”

“Huh?”

“My name. It’s Keith.”

“Oh. OH.” Lance smiles, pulling Keith along with a little tug towards his house. “Nice to meet you, Keith.”

“We’ve already met.” Keith deadpans.

“Yeah, but I’m being polite.” Lance snorts. “You know, you’re not going to regret coming with me—my mom is one of the best healers around, and she’ll definitely have you flying again with good wings in no time.”

Keith snorts. “Okay.”

“I’m serious!” 

“I believe you,” Keith says, shaking his head. Mumbles something about _‘weird humans.’_

“You’re definitely the weird one here, buddy.”

~

“Mama, I’m home.”

“Hello, Lance how was—” She turns around at the kitchen counter with a wide smile, plates presumably for dinner in hand, but they drop and crash right to the floor as she sees the two of them—covered in blood, burns, and charcoal grit. Her eyes are wide, as she traces them over both of them, unblinking. He's just glad she didn't scream.

“I brought a friend.” Lance shrugs, as if that's the reason she looked so mortified.

His mother runs up to them both, And Keith seems nervous, flinching a bit even if he doesn’t back down, trying to stand straight but failing to look toward her. 

Lance nudges his arm. “Dude. It’s okay.”

Before Keith can reply to that one, mouth just slightly parted, pointy teeth visible—Lance’s mother, maybe a foot shorter than both of them, yells at Lance.

“It is not okay!” She says, jabbing Lance with an arm. “What happened out there?!”

“Ah,” Lance says, not exactly sure what to reply with. He didn’t think up a backstory to their situation.

“Dragon-boy over here got chased by a hunter, he needs a little help, especially with his wing.” He pointed, grabbing Keith’s wing just slightly to show it to his mother. He hisses wildly at Lance from the painful touch, and Lance’s mother gasps and looks at Keith more thoroughly.

“You poor thing,” She murmurs, and holds a hand up toward Keith’s wings. His sharp eyes follow her hand, and she smiles softly. “May I?” she asks, looking at Keith in the eye for explicit consent before she puts a hand anywhere near that injured wing. Keith blinks, and nods, softly bringing his wings out for her to see, moving it out slowly to it's full span.

Lance almost gawks at how nice he was being around his mother. “So _I_ can’t touch your wings but _she can_? Unfair, man. I thought I was your favorite.”

“Shut it,” Keith mumbles. “I literally met you twenty minutes ago, tops.”

“Well you met my mom thirty seconds ago, and you’re practically at first base with her I can see, so,” Lance grumbles.

“First _what_?” Keith asks, genuine confusion in his eyes. 

“Lance, stop it. Be nice.” His mother scolds lightly from where she is, examining Keith’s wing. After a moment she pulls back, shaking her head. 

“It’s not good, from the looks at it. Can you come to the bathroom, where I can look and treat it more thoroughly?”

Keith nods.

They follow her.

~

They’ve moved from the bathroom to the potions room on the far side of the house. It was something any witch had, and even though it basically counted as a kitchen, it needed a separate space, and for a good reason. It literally looked like an artist's’ studio, splatters and burns on surfaces that they’d painted over and wiped away, but it was still a little messy in general from previous experiments. 

Despite the mess on the floor tile, the windows were filled with drying herbs, as well as the walls tied with flowers that were drying. There was a little island table in the center of the room as well as counter on the outskirts, and a little bed in the corner for patients, which is currently where Keith was sitting, feet over the edge and tapping his claws anxiously at the bedside. Lance watched from the little ottoman he was sitting on, which more of a frayed stool than anything.

“Okay, well, I have some good news, and bad news.” His mother sighs, clipping off the remaining excess bandage, and eyeing Keith’s wound over once more before backing off.

Keith inhales deeply at Lance’s side. “Bad news first.”

“Alright,” His mother says, business voice on. “You won’t be flying for a long time. A minimum of a few months at least, but realistically, with a hole in the skin that wide, I’d give it closer to six months before you could safely fly while still giving the tissue time to repair. I’m sorry.”

Keith groans, deflating at his side. Lance isn’t close enough that he can comfort him with a manly hug, but he still pats Keith’s knee with a sympathetic smile.

“The good news is, you definitely will fly again. The wound was pretty gruesome, so I expected it needing a lot more recovery time from how much it bled, but you got lucky.” She says, warm smile back. But it quickly drops again. “What did you get shot with, anyway?”

Keith hesitates. “An arrow, I think.” he shrugs. “It was big and pointy, but i ripped it out and threw it away as soon as i could. It was a bit bigger than an arrow, though.”

“You got _speared?!_ ” Lance keys in, gaping, and his mother smacks his arm.

“Well,” Lance’s mother says softly. “If something like that does happen, don’t pull it out if you can help it. It’ll keep the bleeding to a minimum if you leave it like it is, until someone who knows what they’re doing can patch it up.” 

“Okay. I'll do that next time.” Keith smiles, just barely. “Thank you.”

“No problem—and hopefully there is no _next_ time. Just do me a favor and at least rest a day here, we can cook you dinner, and you can sleep in Lance’s room.” She says. “Also, let me see that shoulder now, okay? I need to treat that too.”

Keith looks like he wants to protest, but says nothing.

Whether it’s about the shoulder or the staying put part though, Lance isn’t sure. He thinks it might be the latter.

~

“That went well, don’t you think?” Lance starts, walking fast across his room to fall down onto his bed face first, groaning happily as he shoves the warm pillows into his arms.

“Probably the farthest thing from it,” Keith mumbles, rolling the injured wing around with a wince, trying to get used the new bandaging holding it together.

“It wasn’t that bad.” Lance shrugs, face still in the pillows.

“How about when she sprayed antiseptic on my shoulder and I spat fire at the wall. Was that not bad?” Keith rolls his eyes. “I’m surprised your mother didn’t kick me out.” He mumbles the last part. Lance still catches it.

“She wouldn’t kick you out.” He sits up, and leans against the wall while hugging the pillow, still. “She’s had worse patients, I assure you. She just wants you to feel better. Don’t worry.”

“If you say so...” Keith looks unsure.

Keith looks around the room in a slight awe—not that Lance finds that too surprising.

The floor was hardwood, and mostly cleared save for a round, blue shaggy rug that had been thoroughly worn. It was the shelves that were a mess. They framed the windows across from the doorway, and had small jars lining them, filled with sea life like little aquariums. Not all of them were fish bowls, though. Most were filled with growing seaweed or marimo balls, while some were dry jars filled to the brim with colorful sands, shells, or coral. The longest shelf above the window had a long log of driftwood on top—long hanging plants growing out of the holes of the wood, and trailing along the other shelves like a greenery curtain.  
Then there was his work desk, which was rather messy from unfinished spellwork. But Keith's eyes had trailed over the mess of bottles and jars and candles, and landed on the shining aquamarine gems littering the area. Lance almost snorted. Leave it to a dragon to go right for the jewelry.

But no matter how interested Keith looks in everything, He treads lightly into Lance’s room—Lance’s _space_ —with caution. He’s probably not used to being in places like this, or even someone’s home. Dragons were solitary creatures, ones that didn’t usually have many friends outside a select few. They were possessive of space and objects, and easily intimidated. Lance knew this much from myths and stories his mother had told him, from her own experience. Lance had always thought such would rare creatures would be scary to be near—but other than that first encounter, he felt oddly at peace with Keith there.

If only he would stop hovering anxiously in the doorway.

“Make yourself at home, dude. You’re going to be here a while.” Lance says, face still half pressed into the pillows on his knees.

Keith’s eyebrows bunch together. “I can’t make myself at home. I have to keep going.” he clenches his fist, lost in thought and anxiously stares out the window.

Lance frowns. “So what did happen?” he asks, and pats the space beside him for Keith to come sit beside him. “I feel like I didn’t really hear the full story yet.”

Keith gulps his nerves down, but crosses the room anyway, sitting hesitantly beside Lance. His fists ball up in the sheets. “I was looking for someone.”

“You said that before, but who was it?” Lance asks.

Keith twiddles aimlessly with his own fingers, seemingly struggling with replies. “...another dragon. Shiro.”

“Shiro? Your parent, or something?”

“My caretaker, I guess.” Keith says, grimacing at his own phrasing. “More of a brother, or a close friend, really. But I’ve known him for a very long time.” His hands trail down to Lance’s bed sheets, and curl into a fist with the material in hand. “He was captured a few weeks ago. He went missing.”

Lance gulps. “I’m… sorry to hear that.”

Keith grits his sharp teeth. “I’ve been trying to track him down, and I think I got close, too. But I wasn’t ready enough, and they took me out before I could help him.” He looks devastated. “It’s… all my fault, really.” he hisses, and it’s a sad, mourning noise instead of something of intimidation. He curls his hands over his eyes, hiding. 

Lance doesn’t know what to say. It’s not like he was there himself, so it’s not like he could say what’s true and false, so he doesn’t want to offer half-assed comforts that is _wasn’t Keith, it wasn’t his fault_ , because honestly, it’s not like he had any say, even if he wanted to believe that himself. Keith definitely looked like he was blaming himself, but he doesn’t want to pry for the whole story since Keith already looked worse for wear. 

Instead, lance puts a hand on his shoulder, and Keith’s form stiffens under his fingers. He speaks before Keith simply throws him off, though.

“I don’t know what happened, but you’re probably being harder on yourself than needed.” Lance says. “I mean, we all make mistakes, right? Do things we wish we could change. But it’s all about what you’re going to do from this point on, so what’s the plan?”

Keith takes his hands away from his face, and gives Lance a long look.

“You’re...” he cuts himself off. Shakes his head. “I don’t know. I want to look for Shiro, though. As soon as possible.”

Lance smiles widely at him. “Great. And I may or may not just have some friends that are great at tracking, so let’s get started. Sound good?”

Keith smiles, just the tiniest bit, and Lance’s heart stutters in his chest.

“Yeah. Sounds good.”

~

“So this ‘Pidge’ might be able to track Shiro…?”

“Yup. Both them, and Hunk could probably help you out here.”

“Probably...” Keith mutters. 

“Hey,” Lance assures, as they walk through the forest evergreen that is Lance’s backyard, “they’re great at what they do, and although Hunk and Pidge are probably more of huggers than fighters, they could give you just the right things to find Shiro.”

“I’ll take your word for it, I guess.”

“I won’t let you down,” Lance says with confidence, pushing another tree branch out of the way as the trail thins out.

Only moment later, they come into a quiet opening, the forest still and frozen around them. It’s tranquil, and oddly eerie and dark, only the tiniest rays of light falling through the overgrown trees above hit the mossy ground and trees making the area seem very, very green. There’s a circle of mushrooms around, in a big circle in the middle of the forest floor.

“It’s a fairy ring,” Keith breathes out, looking from just over Lance’s shoulder. In response, Lance just drags Keith out into the open, making himself at home by sitting stretched out on the forest floor, leaning against the biggest tree. 

“Pidge will be here in a bit. They’re almost always with Hunk, and they can sense when someone is intruding in their house, also known as me.” Lance smiles, resting his arms behind his head. “You can sit down too, you know.”

“You didn’t say these two were _fae,_ Lance.” Keith says, voice a little tight. It was clear he was uncomfortable in this place, eyes whipping around to any sign of movement, stock still in the entrance, just like back in Lance’s room.

“Only Pidge is fae. Hunk is a centaur.”

“Uh huh,” Keith mumbles, eyes still darting around. 

“Dude, chill, they’re great…..people?” Lance shakes his head. What is he supposed to refer to them as? “I don’t know if you had bad experience with fae in the past, but these guys are great, okay? They won’t bother you if I ask.”

“...All the fae I’ve met are troublesome,” Keith groans. “They like to steal my shit.” Lance laughs, and covers his mouth, trying to smile over the glare Keith gives him for it.

“It’s not funny, Lance. They’re pesky, and they lie and trick.”

Lance snorts once again. “Don’t dragons steal and hoard shit too?”

“That’s _different_ ,” Keith insists, arms crossing. “I take things I find, I don’t avidly steal from living people”

“But it’s not like you return anything either, do you?”

Keith grumbles at that, looking away.

Lance laughs, and tosses a pebble at Keith, which lands at his knee before hitting the ground. He’s too far to poke him playfully, so it’s the best he can do. At least it gets his attention.

“I promise these two are good. You trust me, right?”

Keith stares a moment too long, but nods, still a little shaken as he steps into the circle, watching his step carefully for all the mushrooms. “I guess I have to.” Lance snorts. 

“Ouch.”

“You’ll live.”

When Keith finally sits down is when the place gets hectic again. 

It’s only a few moments of quiet conversation when Pidge is suddenly _there_ , lounging beside Keith and just hovering off the forest floor.

“Who’s this?” They ask with a smile, and Lance would laugh at Keith’s terrified face, if not for the fact that he really did look like he was about to piss his pants. He has a feeling fae have done a little more to him than just _‘steal his shit.’_

“Pidge, this is Keith. Keith, Pidge. And that’s Hunk, who is now behind you.”

Keith's eyes shoot up to a very, very tall centaur with dark skin and a big smile. Bright yellow vines were wrapped around his hair like a headband, keeping it out of his eyes. He nodded, quiet but friendly.

“Hi, Keith. Nice to meet you. I’m Hunk.”

And then there’s Pidge, short brown hair curled just past the ears, which were long, like an elven creature’s should be. Their nose was pointed, and they had sharp but wide eyes, brown and warmly inviting. 

Keith nods toward both of them, eyes still a little guarded. Pidge smiles openly, and holds out a hand, which Keith glares at.

“You shake it. You know...shake hands…?”

“I know what it is,” Keith growls before grabbing their hand, shaking it quite fiercely at that. Hunk laughs warmly from behind. 

“I like him, Lance. He’s weird.” Hunk says.

“That he is,” Lance smirks, sitting up. Time for business “So, Pidgey—”

“Ah. Here we go,” They say, getting comfortable on the ground, wings ceasing from fluttering about. 

“What?!” Lance declares. _He didn’t even say anything yet!_

“I assume you need something from me?” Pidge inquires, matter-of-factly.” You don’t suck up to me unless you need a favor.”

Keith snorts. Pidge smiles at him. 

Well, Lance could handle his pride being thrown around a little if it meant Keith would loosen up, which seemed to be working. _Good._

“I’m guessing it has something do with dragon dude, right?” 

“Yep. The whole reason I’m here, actually.”

Hunk settles down on a spare patch of grass around them, hooves thumping softly on the grass. “So? What was it?”

“Keith is injured, and he needs to find someone, but since he can’t fly, we sort of need something to go off of here, you know? A direction, maybe. Travel won’t be as easy anymore, so he needs to know where to start.”

“That’s it?” Pidge asks. “That’d be a piece of cake, then.”

They turn to Keith, a goal in those sharp eyes. “Your hand, if you will, Keith.”

Keith nods, and with wide eyes, holds his hand out for Pidge. 

“Who is it you’re looking for?” They ask, eyes closed, hands clutching tightly around Keith’s. “Tell me a name, and show me what they look like.”

“His name is Shiro….I don’t have a photo of him, or anything though...”Keith says, looking confused as ever. Lance nudges him. 

“Think of him. Pidge will be able to pick up enough from that, and can track him through the breeze. You know? Or like, find him through the vines or some other nature crap—”

“Lance,” Pidge groans, eyes still closed in mock patience as they focus.

“Right. Yeah. Got it.”

Keith sighs, and closes his eyes. A long stretch of time passes before Pidge simply lets go of Keith’s hand, eyes still closed and concentrating. After another moment of silence, Pidge opens their eyes, which are blaring an almost green light. Lance can feel Keith practically jump out of his skin next to him.

“It’s creepy, right? Gets me all the time too.” Lance mock-shivers, and Hunk frowns at them. 

“He’s West.” Pidge interrupts, calling everyone’s attention to them. They stand up, and point into the distance. “He’s not on this island, obviously, but he’s not that far, either. Maybe an island or two away, at most?” They blink the weird light out of their eyes.

“And he’s alive, right?” Keith stands, asking in a demanding tone. Lance almost says something, maybe to tell Keith to take it easy, but Pidge simply smiles at him with a nod.

“He’s okay. Well, I don’t know if I’d say ok—I sense stress. But he’s alive.”

Keith sighs in relief, falling back like a deflated balloon. Pidge pats his shoulder, and Keith, for once, doesn’t shudder under the touch. Instead he sends them a grateful look, that almost smile back on his face, making Lance’s heart stutter. 

“Thank you,” Keith mumbles, Making sincere eye contact with Pidge, who nods. 

“...So everything’s fine now?” Hunk asks, standing as well.

“No,” Keith says, pained. “I still need to leave—I need a map, or something. My senses aren’t that great right now.”

Well that certainly spikes Lance’s blood with ice. Didn’t he say that earlier, too? “Uh, hate to be the downer here, but are you sure they didn’t slash your wing with anything poisoned out there, did they?”

Keith shrugs. “I don’t think so. I think I'm just too stressed to concentrate.”

 _Well, that was comforting._ “Let’s just… get mom to check you out again later, okay? In case.” Lance said, and hopefully Keith would just listen to him on this one.

“Okay.” Keith nodded.

“Do you guys have to leave right now?” Hunk asked, eyebrows drawing together as he frowned. “You just got here, too. I even made snacks!”

“It’s okay, Hunk.” Pidge waved their hand. “You guys can stay for a while, right?” They turn to Keith. “And if you do stay for a bit longer, I can draw you a vague map to the whereabouts you want to go as we eat. Sound good?”

Keith nodded, and Lance shrugged. 

“Alright with us.”

~

They’re walking home and the sun is setting by now, and wow, they really spent the whole day out, didn’t they? It looks beautiful, the orange sun leaving red trails of light across the ocean, a soft breeze pulling through the trees, thick with salt.

“I was wrong,” Keith says, as they walk. “Your friends were cool. And very helpful, too.”

“They liked you, I could tell.” Lance smiled. “And Pidge usually plays tricks on people they just meet, but they were nice to you, so I think they approved.” He laughs. “Fae aren’t so bad, now, are they?”

“Not them, at least.” Keith grumbles in admission. 

Lance laughs, and stretches as they walk across the beach, staring for a long moment at the scenery. The sound of seagulls cawing fills the air, and the wind picks up just then, pulling the waves up at their toes.

“I’ve gotten tired of a lot of things, living here my whole life, but that view will never get old,” Lance says in awe, smiling over gleefully at Keith. Keith looked at the setting sun, and a light smile came to his lips, too.  
“It’s pretty.” Keith acknowledges. “My place never had a view like this. I basically live in a crevice, actually.” he frowns as he realizes that part. Lance laughs.

“It’s true, though.” Keith admits. “I couldn’t live out in the open like this, not with all the danger lately. I’ve always been in hiding in the middle of nowhere, so nobody could see me.” His frown deepens. “If I’m honest, I’ve never really… had any friends, either.”

Lance looks over to him.

“I had Shiro,” He scrambles to say, “But he was a brother to me. I haven’t even taken this form in a long time, so I’m a bit rusty with other people. It’s hard trying to remember how to blend in again when I’m so used to just being... whatever’s _comfortable_ when I’m on my own.” He sighs.

“Is that why you can’t hide your wings and scales?” Lance asks.

“Huh?”

“Your wings,” Lance points. “You look like a human, save for the scales and the wings. Can you even hide them, or is it just because of your injuries?” It’s stupid, but he’s been wondering since earlier.

Keith blinks at him. “Mortals can’t see them right now,” He looks back at them. “I’m pretty sure I could glamour them away from other people desensitized to magic like yourself, but I can’t just make them disappear on my own.” He shrugs. “I think If I did somehow make them go away, it’d be like a cat losing its tail. It’d probably be uncomfortable.” He blinks few times at Lance. “Did you want me to try concealing myself fully, or something?”

Lance swallows. “I was just curious.” _but now…_ “If you did want to try it though, It’d probably be funny watching you fall on your ass from being off-balance.”

Keith rolls his eyes, and walks toward Lance’s house. 

“What, Keith. I was kidding. _Kidding!_ ”

~

Dinner is... Eventful.

For one, As soon as Keith enters the room, all eyes are on him, which includes Lance’s younger twin brother and sister, and his older sister, along with Lance’s mother and father. She’s the only one wearing a relaxed and welcoming smile. The rest of them look slightly terrified or ready to bolt. His dad even drops his fork in shock and it falls right into the soup bowl, making a splash.

Ah, right, he had only introduced Keith to his mother so far. The kids were out playing when Keith came in the first time, he’s guessing.

“This is Keith. My dragon friend. He’s eating dinner with us, that okay?”

His eldest sister simply rolls her eyes and goes back to serving her food up for herself, while Lance’s father manages a shaky nod. Meanwhile, the twins practically have stars in their eyes when glancing up at Keith’s hulking wings. Lance grimaces. He really didn’t want those two pulling on Keith’s injured wings for fun or out of curiosity.

Keith seems a bit nervous as well, gripping Lance’s wrist with a tight force and poking him with those sharp nails. When Lance looks at him, his eyes scream “help”.

Lance sighs, and holds his hand, if only to calm him down for dinner. He sets Keith down, running to grab them some plates and cutlery. Keiths eyes follow him around, begging him to sit down again so he’s not alone out there.

Lance doesn’t even bother serving Keith up anything but meat. Thankfully, his mother had already prepared a half-cooked steak, seasoned with something weird… but he definitely knew it was for Keith, whatever it was.

When he places the plate in front of Keith, his thought had definitely been right. Keith practically drools, mouth gaping in a little ‘o’ as he smells it. Lance snorts. Dragons were definitely weird.

After Keith sends a thankful glance his mothers’ way, they dig in, a few questions about Keith being asked here and there, mostly by his intrusive little brother and sister.

“How old are you?”

“What kind of dragon are you? Are there different types?”

“Where do you live?”

“How well can you fly?”

“How’d you meet Lance? We never knew he knew somebody like you.”

“Are you guys dating?”

Lance groaned at that one, and slumps in his chair, packing all his utensils onto his empty plate before standing up.

“Okay, okay, that’s enough questions,” he mutters, taking Keith’s empty plate to the sink too. Keith follows behind him, every step. He was probably just as eager to leave as Lance was.

“Yes, Lance is right,” His mother says. “Keith is probably very tired from his journey. Lance?” She says, throwing a glance his way. “Keith can stay in your room, so take care of him and set up some extra bedding, okay?”

He nods, already turning the corner to head upstairs. “Okay, Ma.”

~

As he airs out the sheets and places them on the spare mattress, Keith uses the bathroom, still busy cleaning up in the shower. Even though his mother had cleaned both of their wounds, she hadn’t exactly ordered either of them to bathe at the time, which they were definitely going to do now.

When Lance finishes making the bed, he throws a couple of his pillows down for Keith’s convenience, but he’s still unsure. How did dragons sleep, anyway? Did they use pillows? 

The bathroom door opens before he can overthink it. He could just ask Keith himself. And as he turns around to do so, his jaw falls slack open. 

Keith’s only wearing a towel.

“U-um, buddy?” he coughs. “Did you want to borrow some clothes?”

Keith looks down at himself. His brows furrow. “No. This is fine, why?”

“Lemme get you some clothes,” Lance rushes past Keith, trying to hide the scarlet blush covering his whole face. 

_Thank you, Keith, for serving as a reminder of how bisexual I am._ Lance thinks, forcing himself to look anywhere in the room that isn’t Keith as he fishes into his dresser drawer for some _pants._

He throws some old pajama bottoms at Keith, who only raises an eyebrow at Lance. 

“What? If I give you a shirt you’d have to make a hole in it to fit your wings through.” Lance says, throwing another blanket down on Keith’s mattress. “That’s okay, right?”

Keith shrugs. “It doesn’t matter. I never really sleep in clothes, anyway.”

“You sleep naked?!” Lance hisses. Well. Keith lived on his own for the most part, there’s nobody that could really stop him from wearing clothes or not to sleep. Still weird. He had family that loved to barge in his room uninvited, so maybe that’s why it seemed so strange.

Keith narrows his eyes. “I sleep as a dragon, Why would I wear clothes?” He rolls his eyes, walking back to the bathroom. 

“Oh,” Lance blinks. Guess he should have figured that much. Keith was probably only keeping this form so Lance didn’t feel intimidated. Or maybe just to save some space. Not that Keith was actually that much bigger as a dragon, he was kinda scrawny for some powerful beast. Still absolutely terrifying giving chase earlier, though.

The lights go off quickly as soon as Keith enters the room again, and they both try to get comfy in their beds, but Lance can hear how much Keith is kicking around down there. He probably was anxious to leave, or be home at least. 

Well. Since they weren’t sleeping.

“Hey, Keith.” His eyes are on the ceiling, illuminated by the light of the moon hitting the waves. The nights were always quite bright, on the beach. He could even hear the waves rolling against the shores.

“What.”

“Tell me about yourself.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah. I don’t know anything, though we spent the whole day together.” Plus, his siblings brought some great questions up at dinnertime.

“You are my age, right.”

“Well, how old are you?”

“Eighteen.”

“More or less.”

“What does that mean.” Lance groans, rather than asks.

“It means I have no means of tracking time in a cave,” Keith snorts. “I’m definitely not older than twenty, though.”

“How would you know?”

“I can’t tell time with a watch, but I can keep track of seasons.”

Oh.” Okay, one thing answered. _What else did he want to know…_ “What do you do in your free time?”

Keith rustles the sheets. As he tosses and turns. He speaks in a quiet voice when he says, “I like to fly.”

“That’s it?”

“Well what do you like to do in your free time, then?” Keith asks back, defensively, and when Lance turns over to face him, he sees Keith already leaning on one elbow to look up at him. 

“Well,” He sighs, in thought. Lance gets comfy on his pillow, facing Keith, whose eyes were _definitely_ glowing in the dark, a bright yellow. It was both creepy, and a little cool. Either way, he can’t seem to pull his his gaze from them. “I like to practice magic. And I occasionally meddle with potions, but that’s more my moms’ thing.” He shrugs. “I hang out with Pidge and Hunk lots, and we bake and spar for fun sometimes I guess. Pidge helps me with my spells, too.”

“What kind of spells do you do?” Keith asks, head turning to the side in a tilt. His hair followed the motion, bangs just slightly falling in his eyes.

“Mom helps me with healing stuff, like the kind of spellwork she was performing on your wing earlier.” Lance says. “Since water’s my element, I’m much better with healing than anything else, but Pidge helps me work more on divination and such.”

“You can tell the future?” Keith raises an eyebrow.

“Nah,” Lance waves a hand. “The most i get are images or feelings, but for the most part i get some intense deja vu when i feel like i saw something before.” 

“So what you’re telling me is you’re bad at it.”

“Hey, I’m not!” Lance swears, and then grins. “You should see me with my element, sometime. I bet I can impress you with what I can do in the water.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Keith shrugs.

“Oh, you will, I’ll make sure of it. Also—it’s my turn.” Keith rolls his eyes.

Lance taps a finger to his chin. “Do you have any siblings, Keith?” 

“Shiro, I guess.” He frowns. 

“What about relatives, though? Or were you like, born from an egg or something and never met them before?”

Keith narrows his eyes in the dark. “Lance, what’s the point of all these questions? I have to leave tomorrow. It’s not going to matter.”

Lance sits up. “Um, I want to be your friend? I want to get to know you.” he squints. “and what do you mean you’re leaving _tomorrow_?”

Keith sighs deeply. “Lance, I’m thankful for all you and your family has done for me. Really.” He says, voice sure. “But I have to leave tomorrow. Shiro’s in danger, and I’m the only one who can save him. He’s alive right now, but—” He bites his lip, and it might just be the bad lighting, but he’d swear Keith is _shaking_. “—I don’t know for how long. I need to move fast, and I can’t waste another day on the beach while I know he could be getting hurt, or worse—” He cuts himself off with a pained growl. The room grows silent.

He feels like he’s walking on eggshells, but it’s not like he’s going to let this go, either. “Well, you shouldn’t leave. You’re still hurt.” 

“Lance—”

“So you’re going to take me with you.”

“What?” Keith’s eyes bulge out. “No. You can’t--this is my fight, Lance.” His teeth sparkle in the dark as he talks. “I won’t let you come.”

“Who says you’re the boss of me?” Lance retorts, crossing his arms. “I’m not going to let someone who’s hurt just wander out there to get killed. You said it yourself, you can’t fly. You need someone to help you.” He points two thumbs right back at himself. “I’m a sea witch. I can literally bend the sea to my will.” Okay, overestimation, but _still_. “You need me, Keith, and I won’t let you leave without me. Got it?”

“This is stupid,” Keith hisses, arm pointing out the window. “There’s things much more dangerous than pesky fae out there, Lance. You could be _killed_ if you come with me.”

“And you’ll be killed if I don’t, so...” He shrugs. 

“No.” Keith growls and it rumbles through the room’s walls, a real threat in his voice. Too bad Lance didn’t really care. He already knew Keith was all bark and no bite.

“Yup. Sorry, you lose. I’m going with you.” He lies back down, and pulls the sheets up to his shoulders. 

The room is quiet, and Lance is at least ninety eight percent sure Keith is still glaring holes at his back, but he won’t turn around to check. Keith wouldn’t be leaving by himself, that much he could promise. He said he was going against a bunch of hunters, and that would likely turn out terrible (and much like the first time) if he goes back alone. 

He himself may not be that strong, either, but… he couldn't bear to watch Keith leave. Not yet.

“It’s not my fault if you get hurt.” Keith says suddenly, and Lance jumps to the side, because Keith literally breathes the words down the back of his neck.

He stares at Keith, eyebrows up to his hairline. Keith is holding sharp claws on the edge of his bed, staring up at him with those glowing eyes, anger gone. There’s just sharp clarity in them, a message he’s trying to send to Lance with a glare alone.

“...Yeah, got it.” _Without you breathing it down my shirt_ he thinks. His back still tingles where Keith’s hot breath had landed. He subconsciously reaches to scratch at the spot.

“Okay.” Keith nods, and just like that, he curls back up into a ball under the sheets, glaring at the wall near the door. Lance snorts air at the sight. Was this kid ever _not_ angry?

“Hey,” He says, gripping the sheets.

“What, Lance.”

“We’ll find him. We’re going to find Shiro, so get some sleep, okay?”

Keith’s eyes simply trail over his shoulder to him, and he nods, slowly. “I know.”

“Good.” Lance says. “Night, Keith.”

As he lies down, he tries to swallow his own anxieties, despite what he just said to Keith. He’s never left this place before--never even traveled too far into the water before, never mind Leave the island to go adventuring. And yeah, his eldest brother and dad left the island all the time for work on the mainlands, but what would his mother even say to this? She’s never left him out of her sight for more than two hours, so how was he supposed to convince her he would be taking a journey off the island that could potentially get dangerous pretty fast? What would she even say? 

He really didn’t want to leave Keith alone in this. Not only was it a lawful sense of commitment because he was the one to find Keith, but no, it’s more than that.

He wanted to be Keith’s friend. He wanted to help him find his way.

He wanted Keith to trust him too. 

And no matter what his mother said the next day, he’d somehow find a way around it. He needed to go. 

With that thought in mind and the sound of Keith’s even breaths from down beside him, he closes his eyes and falls asleep to the thrum of waves hitting the shore.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this chapter needs heavy editing but I need to post it since it feels like I've waited too long already sjfkldgs  
> HOPE U ENJOY!
> 
> (this chapter is from Keith's perspective)

Keith gets up early, not being able to sleep that well in the first place. 

Lance was still snoring away, arms and legs tangled in disorderly sheets. Keith doesn’t stare for too long before he get up as quietly as possible, wandering into the creaky halls, and out of the house all together. 

He probably could have gotten a few more hours of sleep if he really tried, but he felt energized enough from the four or so he got. And walking around inside the house just reeked of a bad idea--he’d probably wake everyone else up with his restlessness.

He’s surprised he got any sleep at all, actually. He was so anxious about Shiro, how he was doing, if he was even in trouble or not. 

There was too much Keith didn’t know--and that was really, _really_ hard to take in. 

He was so used to being with Shiro all the time, that when suddenly his presence was snatched up from under him. It was hard to comprehend. Shiro was _gone_ \--and left no sign of where he went other than a few stray scales and puddles of human(?) blood, that smelled so strongly of iron. He still remembers the smell in detail, and how similar it was to that of the man who shot him.

It was his only lead.

At some point, Keith sat down in the sand on the beach outside the Mcclain house, letting the waves just barely brush up against his toes, ice cold and painful. The sun had just started to rise. He soaks up the view, and the feeling of it all. He supposed he’s supposed to enjoy himself even just a little bit before he goes off to search--but he only knows how to feel tense and ready to jump at any given moment. 

He’s _always_ been like that.

He gets a good half hour to himself, lost in thought, when Lance shows up, kicking sand at him instead of saying good morning.

“Thought you’d escape me, did you?” Lance cackled, still in his pajama pants and a hoodie. “Think again!”

Keith raises an eyebrow. “...Did it look like I was leaving?”

“Ha! It--” Lance startles, accusing finger lowering. “Well. I guess not, actually. But what are you doing out here this early?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” He admits, looking at the sunrise once again as Lance sits down next to him, maybe a bit too close. “Why did _you_ come out here?”

“Looking for you, _but of course._ ” Lance retorts. “You should be happy. I set my alarm clock for five hours earlier than i usually wake up, just to see what you were up to. I felt like you wouldn’t be able to sit still for long, and I was right.”

“How late do you humans sleep?” Keith cringes. He probably hasn’t got even five hours of sleep in a long time. The four he got last night was already a breaking record. 

“Not _humans_ , Just _me_. In my family, anyway.” He laughs. “My mom hates it, but I do it every day. I need my beauty rest, what’s so bad about that?”

“You miss too much in your surroundings when you do that. It makes you become unaware, and groggy.” He states.

Lance eyes him flatly. “Ugh, you sound just like my mother.” after clearing his throat, he asks, “So what’s the plan?

“Don’t you need to tell your mom we were leaving?”

Lance’s eyes widen. “Oh. Yeah.” He cringes. “That might be the hard part, since I’ve never left the island before” 

Keith glares.

“But I’m sure she’ll make an exception?” Lance hopes.

Keith stares at him for a long, silent moment before standing up. “I have a question,” he asks.

“What is it?” Lance asks, hands in a hoodie pocket to stay warm in the morning chill. 

He’s been wondering for awhile now, but… “Why are you coming with me, anyway? Do you want something out of it? My money? Or treasures, maybe?”

Lance’s eyes bug out comically. Keith raises an eyebrow.

“...Nothing?” Lance says, uncertainly.

“What?” Keith asks, narrowing his eyes. It was too suspicious. “What do you mean, _nothing?_ ”

“Exactly what I said!” Lance says, looking annoyed. “I didn’t want to be paid to come with you, I just wanted to help.” He says, bewildered. After staring at each other wordlessly for a few more moments, Lance sighs, continuing. 

“I’ve never left this island in my entire life, Keith. I just thought… If you needed my help, I’d be there for you. I mean, that’s what friends are for, right? I didn’t want money from you, or treasures, or anything like that. Jeez.” He says quietly, rubbing the back of his neck as an awkward silence follows. 

Keith feels like he’s been slapped in the face. “We’re friends?”

Lance makes a face. “Um, yeah? Do you think I’d let any old stinky dragon sleep in my room?” He teases, but his face is red. Keith feels his own face heating up, just from the stupidity of all of this. 

_He_ feels stupid. 

“Oh,” he whispers to himself. He didn’t even know.

“Yeah, _Oh,_ ” Lance snorts. After a moment, he adds. “And I don’t want your crummy money. I wanted to leave this island for a while now, and I thought it’d be good to go. With you.”

“Don’t we still need to ask your mother about that one?” Keith asks, as a reminder. He’s a little desperate to change the subject now.

“Yep, we still have to do that.”

“Let’s go, then. We’re wasting time.”

“And while we’re at it--let’s get you some clothes, buddy. You’re not going adventuring in pajama pants.” Lance says, skipping ahead.

“This isn’t an adventure, this is a rescue.” Keith sighs, tired.

“It’s both,” Lance says quietly, trying to get in the last word.

Keith rolls his eyes, but doesn’t have the energy to argue. He still feels a little warm in the face, and the cool air does nothing to help him feel better.

~

“Absolutely not,” His mother says, not even done sipping at her morning tea. Keith waits off to the side, not wanting to be here for this ticking time bomb of a conversation.

“Mom,” Lance inhales, voice already getting louder. “I have to go! Don’t you see? He’ll die without my help!”

“Will not,” Keith mutters, and Lance shoots him a glare. Keith pipes down, and tries to get settled in the new clothes he’s wearing instead. The black t-shirt was Lance’s, and sadly had to have a hole ripped around for his wings--while the pants belonged to Lance’s older brother. They were black, and sporty. Tight fitting, but stretchy. He wished his old pants were like this.

“I think he’s pretty capable of taking care of himself, Lance.” She frowns. “But I do agree he should have somebody go with him. Maybe I’ll ask your father--he knows his way around these islands well. Much better than you do.”

Lance grits his teeth, but remains calm. Somewhat. “No, _I_ need to go with him. Mom, Pidge already gave us a map, and it’d be best if I go, don’t you think? Sure, I don’t know the islands that well, but this would be a perfect chance to learn!”

She holds the bridge of her nose in frustration. “Lance,” She says sternly. “This isn’t exactly a learning opportunity. There’s serious trouble involved here, and I don’t want you getting involved with hunters.”

“Mom, Please.” He asks, sounding upset. “You never trust me with anything, and I never _will_ learn about how to be outside, or--or anything if you keep me stuck here all the time! I mean, you had to let Dylan go outside the island on his own at some point, didn’t you? He definitely didn’t go with dad when he left!” He shouts, addressing to the outside with a sharply pointed arm as he yelled.

Lance was not a physically angry person, from what Keith could see. He was practically yelling at this point, yet his face remained almost reserved, just a flicker in his emotions, a wobble in the lips. When Keith was angry, he got red in the face and quite literally blew up, heat coming off his skin in rage.

Lance looked almost as calm as a wave, save for the flickers of annoyance the way his eyebrows and lips moved. But Keith could tell he was indeed angered about this, from the tone in his voice alone.

“I let your brother go because he was _ready_ , Lance.” she says. “I won’t send my son into something like that when he’s clearly not ready.” she shakes her head. “You need to stay here--to practice, and learn more about protecting yourself before you decide to head off and protect other people! Lance, I love you for trying to be the hero, but sometimes you decide to take on too much in one go.” She huffs. “Let your father handle it. He can help Keith just fine. And he knows plenty well how to defend himself, okay? You need to think before you make decisions and promise things like this.”

The room is quiet save for the angry gazes passing between mother and son, a silent conversation there. Keith feels restless suddenly.

Keith’s eyes dart nervously to Lance. He felt so much like he was intruding, honestly. He didn’t want his presence to break the family apart--that’s not why he came here. He came here to get his wing patched up, and leave. That could still be the plan, if he left now. But he can’t deny that Lance calling him ‘friend’ earlier made him even more certain about taking Lance with him It kind of felt like he was already losing that, if he said goodbye here.

“...Maybe I should just go, Lance.”

“No,” Lance says abruptly. “I made you a promise, and I plan on keeping it.” His eyes trail back to his mother.

Keith bites his tongue after that, not really sure what to say.

“Mom, I get it.” Lance huffs, turning from Keith. “You want to keep me here. You want me to stay safe, and I will. Just not at home.” He walks up to her, eyes still joined together like flames. “Keith and me will guard each other out there--we’ll be okay.” He assures, mouth quirking up. “I didn’t make a promise to him thinking it’d be sunshine and giggles, you know.”

“I know, Lance,” She sighs, exasperated. “But I like you here where I can watch you, and it’s not like you can contact me from wherever you go.” She frowns. “You’ll be on your own out there. I won’t be there to help you if you leave.”

Lance smiles brightly, “I won’t be alone, remember? Keith’s gonna be with me. And when we rescue Shiro, I’ll come back safe and sound, you’ll see.”

Lance’s mother’s stiff expression melts, and her shoulders sag. Keith can see the love in the next glance she gives her son, holding his shoulders and mouth wobbling in the best smile she can as she pulls him close. He can practically see the moment she gives in, and decides to let him. The tension leaves Keith in an exhale.

“I know you will, Sweetie, I just--” she sighs. “I worry too much.” She admits.

“You do.”

“Cut me some slack, I’m sending my son into the battlefield here.” She says, softly. “But I do understand…I was eighteen once, too. I just need you to stay safe, okay?” She says, holding his shoulders again, looking into his eyes and trying to convey a message. “There’s _dangerous things_ out there. Things we don’t see on this island, and not everything is friendly and trustworthy. You need to keep your guard up, okay?”

“I understand,” Lance says, nodding. His mother gives him one last smile and a big hug before she looks at Keith with a sympathetic smile and nods, maybe a silent apology for having this conversation in front of him.

“Will you two at least stay for an early lunch?” She asks. Lance sends a look Keith’s way.

They didn’t really have time for this, but he couldn’t lie that food sounded amazing right now. And who knows when they would eat next? He nods, and Lance’s mother passes by Keith, a hand on his shoulder as she passes by.

The room’s silence holds for only a moment longer before Lance sighs very loudly, shoulders deflating. “I can’t believe she actually agreed.” he says, a bit of wonder in his voice.

“Me neither,” Keith agrees. The way that conversation was going, he assumed he’d be leaving without Lance. Which was weirdly a hard thought to process. He was so used to travelling alone by this point, but… He liked Lance. He wanted Lance to come with him. Without his flying abilities, he didn’t know how he’d be getting off the island. 

“Let’s go say bye to Pidge and Hunk, first. I don’t want them complaining later that I didn’t say anything to them--they won’t let me live it down for a year at the minimum.” He groans, turning around to leave through the back door.

Keith fidgets awkwardly, daring to grab Lance’s hand as he passes by him. 

Lance raises an eyebrow, looking him up and down. “What’s up?”

“Don’t you--” He sighs. Retries his sentence. “Maybe you _should_ stay here. Let me go alone, like your mom said.” Keith suggests, eyebrows drawn together. “It won’t be a walk in the park, and even if your mother trusts me, I don’t know if I have the ability to keep us both safe.”

Keith was used to this--doing things himself. He didn’t need the added pressure of someone else on board, someone he had to look after. It might not be the easier route, but it sure would be the safest for Lance. He was too much of an airhead to face against trolls or sirens trying to kill him and _win_ , Keith is sure. 

Even if he did like the idea of company, for once. It sounded interesting, if not absolutely terrifying.

Getting involved with people is what got him here in the first place, looking for Shiro. In fact, he’d probably be safe if not for Keith keeping him down. It’s a depressing thought.

Lance narrows his eyes.

“Of course I’m going with you. I literally just argued with my mom in front of you so I could go with you. And even if I didn’t go, she’d just send my dad with you, like she said.” He frowns. “You wouldn’t be going _alone_. None of us would let you.”

“I know,” Keith replies, and thinks back to watching Lance and his mother hug only moments ago. He just didn’t want Lance to get hurt. _What if Lance never saw his mother again because of him?_ “I just--You need to be careful, okay, she’s right about everything--”

Lance rolls his eyes, not listening. “Ok, Keith, It’s sweet that you care, but I just had the mom talk, I definitely don’t need it again.”

Keith growls. “Lance--” 

“We’ll be fine," He snorts. Says it lightheartedly, like it’s nothing. “Can’t you trust me, just a little?”

The confidence he had was astounding, but his smile even got Keith feeling better about the situation. It was calming, watching him, seeing assurance in his eyes. Keith’s pretty sure this is the same effect Lance had used on his mother, keeping her wrapped around his finger.

Keith sighed, Giving in. “Okay.” Didn’t mean he had to like it, though.

~

When they enter the clearing this time, Keith doesn’t feel as jittery. Hunk and Pidge are already there, Pidge floating just off the ground while eating something that looks like a cookie, while Hunk is eating something similar, laying on the grass. When they spot Keith and Lance, they wave them over.

“What are you guys up to?” Hunk asks, mouth full.

“Hunk, buddy,” Lance says, a pout on his lips. “I’m not going to see you guys for a while.”

Pidge throws the rest of their cookie at Lance’s head. “You’re finally running away?! And with Keith--and not _me_ when I asked you _years_ ago?” They looked bewildered.

“Lance, how could you?” Hunk says, gasping. 

“Wha--no! I’m not running away!”

“Joining the circus?” Hunk asks. “You could probably make lots of money with your magic in front of mortals, actually.” He nods, like it was a reasonable idea. Pidge shrugs, thoughtful.

“What the hell, guys. No.”

Keith honestly couldn’t process what was going on. His eye twitched.

Lance jerked a thumb in his direction, and two sets of eyes shot to him as Lance says, “I’m going to help this guy look for Shiro, so we’ll be gone for a while.”

Their eyes widen. 

“...By yourselves?” Hunk asks.

“It was either him going alone, or this. And I want to help.”

“But wasn’t he captured by hunters?” Pidge asks, head tilting. “Isn’t that… A little bit more than something you both could handle?”

Keith narrows his eyes. “We didn’t tell you he was captured.”

Pidge shrugs. “I find these things out. I was in your head, remember?”

Lance pat’s Keith’s shoulder. “Don’t take it personally, They’re always this creepy.” turning back to them, he says, “And we can totally handle this. I just came here to tell you guys I was leaving in a few hours, and you probably won’t see me for like, what--” he looks at keith. “How long will be gone?”

Keith shrugs. Flying had only taken seconds, but who knew how long walking would take? And how would they even _get_ to the other islands are a real question. Lance probably had a boat, right? He was a sea witch, that was probably how they’d be going around. _Yeah._ sounds logical.

“Keith?”

“I didn’t exactly think of a schedule for this thing, Lance.” He deadpans, snapping out of his thoughts. He needed to go to his nest, and then to Shiro. That was the only planning he'd done so far.

“Huh. Guess I‘m just more coordinated than you.” To pidge and Hunk he says, “I’ll be back in a week probably.” Keith growls at Lance’s competitiveness. 

_It’s not a game,_ he thinks, annoyed.

“I’m gonna miss you though, Lance.” Hunk frowns. “And you too, Keith!” And just as a look crosses over his face, he snaps his fingers, pointing to Keith. 

“How about when you guys come back, we have a party? And you can introduce us to Shiro!”

Keith feels like befriending Lance just got him stuck onto this group of his permanently. He’s not used to being around anyone else but Shiro, and even being around Lance made him feel overwhelmed, not to mention the rest of his family. And now his friends knew about him and were trying to include him in, too.

He can’t say he hates it, but it is something new and strange for him. And Hunk’s eyes express nothing but raw honesty as he asks, and Keith feels himself smile, just a little.

“Sure thing, Hunk.”

~

“No, put the luggage away, dumbass. We need to travel _light_.”

“This is the smallest Backpack i have!” Lance shouts, throwing his arms up, and tossing the bag against the wall with a loud clatter.

Keith looks around his room for a moment before his eyes land on messenger bag on the doorknob of Lance’s closet. “That one,” He says, pointing. Lance’s eyes follow his hand, and he cringes. 

“No way! Keith, that thing wouldn’t fit more than a few herbs and a stone or two! My mom’s wallet is literally bigger.”

Keith looks at him blankly. “You’re exaggerating once again. It’s decent.”

“I’ll never fit all the essentials in there! What about my charmed moisturizers? My anti-aging ointments?” He pouted. “Wrinkles start early on without sunscreen, Keith. I need to take care of my skin.”

“Figure it out, then.” Keith growls. Lance keeps pouting, trying to convince Keith with a sad puppy face, but Keith’s eyes are unmoving. Lance breaks first. 

“ **Fine!** I’ll leave them--but this just means we gotta rescue shiro even faster, okay? Five days out there, _tops,_ because my face needs this routine--”

“Lance,” Keith says, throwing the bag at him. “ _Important_ things, okay?”

“Alright,” Lance says, testy. “Don’t need to throw it at me, jeez,” and continues to toss ‘necessities’ in the bag, like herbs and smaller pouches of things Keith doesn’t even want to know what they are. He also questions Lance’s pickiness about the bag-- he never carried that much on him a day in his life. Even now all he had was a dagger and the clothes he was wearing to his name.

Maybe it was a witch thing.

When they go down for lunch Lance’s siblings are pouting the whole time about him leaving, and Lance promising he’ll be back, and bring souvenirs. They get happier after that, telling him to have a good time and to stay safe. It was clear his family was very caring for him, not just his mother doting on him. 

It was sweet.

Lance’s mother had prepared him another steak, and he’s glad. He almost expected something like a salad or something else cringey on his plate the first night, but was amazed by the courtesy she went through to get the things he ate.

Dragons were picky eaters, him included.

She may not have told Lance, but he can tell she’s met a dragon before. She knew to ask before touching his wings, after all. And what he liked to eat. It was kind of relaxing, if not making him a little more curious about her. 

When they finish up lunch, Lance tells Keith to wait outside.

He’s just outside the door, ready to go, when Lance appears again--covered in a long, dark blue witches cloak, that drapes around his shoulders and cascades down to the floor. IT almost looks like waves, the way it falls around him. 

And then Lance is saying his goodbye’s and handing out a dozen hugs to each sibling, Keith waits just outside of their circle, arms crossed in waiting.

He knows he’s not part of that, so he waits for the moment to pass and for them to leave. He’ll say his goodbyes, but he stays where he is, set on not interrupting. It wasn’t… it wasn’t his place.

But once again, Lance’s mother can seemingly sense his discomfort, and strides over to him, something in her hands. 

“This is for you,” She says to Keith, as she holds up a simple silver chain necklace with a ring on the bottom, with two tear-drop shaped jewels attached to it by wire. One a shining orange, the other a murky white. Both were glossy and polished, and very eye-catching. 

He lowers his head for her to place it on, which she does, adjusting it slightly around his neck to fit comfortably. He can’t help but stare down at it, entranced by the jewels dangling off the end. When Lance’s mother chuckles at him for it--for staring awestruck at the necklace, he feels his cheeks pinken. Okay, so he likes shiny things. She seemed to know that.

She points to the charms on the end. “Those are for protection.” She states, and touching the reddish stone, says, “A sun stone. For protection, and success on your journey.” and to the other, she says, “A moonstone. For peace, and concentration. They’re stones that balance each other out, but I hope they help you on your path.”

He blinks. Feels a few emotions from the kind thought. He’s a little speechless, honestly. 

“I want you to know,” She starts. “The only reason I’m letting Lance do this is because you’re going with him. He’s a clumsy boy, a little too excited, but he’s got a good heart. Please keep him safe.” She asks, smiling softly in that motherly way.

Keith gulps, feeling his adam’s apple bobbing. _Okay, no pressure, or anything._

“But,” She continues, slowly. “I want you to stay safe, too. Lance may not seem like it to you just yet, but he’s got plenty of potential, so I don’t doubt he’ll give his all to protect you out there. So please trust him, and come home safe. Both of you.” Another fond smile.

He feels a little overwhelmed. And That was putting it lightly. He feels so many things, so many familial things like protection and guidance that he hadn’t felt in a long time, even with Shiro around.

And that feeling goes over the edge when she hugs him, like he’s her son or something. He tries not to go rigid in her arms, but he doesn’t know how to reciprocate it well, either.

The last time he had a hug like this was when his own mother was still--

Well. He doesn’t want to think about that. Not right now.

“Are we ready, Keith?!” Lance all but shouts right next to him, and he pulls back from the hug.

Lance’s mother smiles at her son, and goes for a hug and cheek kiss, ignoring Lance’s gagging protests of, _“Bleh, mom, gross!”_ before shooing them both off with warm goodbyes. 

“Thank you,” He says to her, for the necklace--and for trusting him, too. She nods, and he turns his head. Following the path.

~

“So, do you have a boat?” Keith asks, looking around the shore for any sort of transportation when they’re alone in the distance, the middle of the beach. The sun is halfway through the sky, giving them maybe six hours of light, at best. 

When Keith turns to Lance to find an answer to his silence (for once), he sees Lance’s eyes, wide as moons.

 _“What?”_ He asks. _He spoke english, didn’t he?_

“A boat?” Lance practically guffaws out, like the last of his air supply. “No, no, precious Keith, we are not travelling by some crummy _boat_.”

“Then…” _What are we doing,_ is the underlying question he’s asking.

Lance’s smile is bright. “Just wait,” he says, and makes some ungodly noise through his teeth, that sounds like a whistle, only not. Not human.

“Lance, What the fu--”

“Shh. I said to wait.”

A few more brushes of the tide later, Keith gets impatient. Taps his feet as he looks around with impatience. _They were losing time for crying out loud--_

 _“Oh,”_ he whispers quietly, when he sees two silhouettes poke out of the water’s surface like shadows on the waves. 

Black horses.

 _Kelpie,_ to be more specific.

“Oh no, _hell no,_ we are not riding those--” Keith goes to say, already backing away, but Lance is grinning from ear to ear at his discomfort, and holding his wrist, pulling Keith towards them.

“Dude, what’s with you and other creatures having issues?” He snorts, pulling them into the waves, knees deep in water. “These guys are totally safe.”

“They like to **drown** people, Lance.” He reminds the other, trying to tug his arm back. 

Lance waves his hand at him, like it was no big deal. “They won’t do anything to us,” He says confidently. And to the horse, who is black-furred, bones poking through the skin and absolutely terrifying, he says, “Will you, big guy? Of course you won’t~” and he scritches the thing under the chin like a damn cat, cooing at it.

 _I can’t keep your son safe, I’m sorry Mrs. Mcclain._ Keith thinks, soberly. _he’s trying too hard to be killed._

“Lance, I don’t think--”

“Do you not get it yet, Keith?” 

“Get what?”

Lance snorts. “They’re my _mother’s_ familiars. They won’t hurt a fly unless she asks. Or if you’re an enemy to my family.”

Keith suddenly fears the woman, being able to tame these two… _things_. But it makes him more comfortable with approaching them, at least. He’s still not in love with the idea though.

He puts a cautious hand in front of the beast, letting it soak up his scent with that big, skinless nose. It was practically a corpse of a horse, just with a fish's’ tail, a layer of seal-like fur, and a vortex of nothingness for eyes--Completely soulless.

“If you try and drown me,” Keith threatens quietly, “I will _eat_ you. And neither of us want that. So don’t try anything funny.” The horse’s manner doesn’t change, simply blinking and huffing, waiting to go.

Lance snorts in the background at the exchange. “Stop antagonizing the kelpie, Keith. We’re going to your nest first, right?”

Keith nods, skimming a hand along the Kelpie’s long neck, and carefully getting onto it’s back.

“Lead the way for her. Just point your finger, and she’ll see.” Lance says, shooing him into the ocean first, being carried shoulder-deep into the icy, slightly rough waters.

Keith wished they just had a boat. 

~

Keith’s never loved ground so much before this, as the kelpie’s hooves touch solid ground and Keith jumps off, practically running from the thing, wings shaking excess water off.

He was soaked. _This is why he hated the ocean._

And then there was Lance, a few feet away, smiling as if water in his boots and socks was a _nice_ thing to experience. 

They walked up the trail from the beach, far enough to get a little shelter for the night. Keith shivered like a wet kitten, and Lance laughed at him, Which Keith glares back in return, eyes hot as flame.

“Are you _that_ cold?” Lance asks, genuinely curious.

“ _Yes,_ ” Keith hisses. “I’m used to living in a cave. It was almost always warm in there, considering how deep in the ground it was.”

“Well, I can fix that before we continue on, then,” Lance says, boasting like a champ, as he grabs Keith’s shoulders, holding him still.

“What are you doing,” Keith sighs, feeling himself tense up.

“Chill,” Lance says, eyes closing in concentration. “And stay still. Watch carefully, okay?”

Keith doesn’t nod, but his eyes dart around in waiting. He feels like Lance is slowly driving him insane with ambiguous answers and question evading.

But then, those hands on his shoulders clasp down just a little tighter, and he watches as water rises from their clothing and faces, like rain falling in reverse. Except it’s slow, and it hovers around them as if frozen in time.

But it’s actually working, and he can feel his clothes peel away from his skin, becoming lighter without the water clinging to it. It’s like the clothes were never wet at all, by the time Lance is done. The seawater still hovers around them in orbs when Lance opens his eyes.

And like the magic is lost, the water falls around them, into the ground on the surrounding beach. His clothes are dry, but the sand it pretty much drenched under their feet.

“Cool, right?” Lance huffs, clearly tired, still trying to show off.

Keith squints. “Why would you tire yourself out like that?” It was just water, after all. Even if he was complaining.

They still had quite a long ways to go, and they only just got to land. They still had a hike after this, too. Now wasn’t the time to use excess magic for party tricks.

Lance shrugs. “You said you were cold!”

“Yeah, so…?” He was grateful to Lance, really, but he felt bad seeing the other clearly run out of energy with such a thing. 

“So, I didn’t want to see you shiver like a wet rat.” He snorts. 

“Why would that even affect you--”

“Keith,” Lance laughs. “You were cold. I know water magic. I wanted to help, yeah? That’s all.”

“But you’re _tired_ now,” He says, like that’ll explain everything.

“Yeah, well, i’ll get sleep later.” Lance rolls his eyes. “I just wanted you to feel better, okay? You could have just said _thanks_ instead of giving me that half-lecture you just did.”

Keith doesn’t understand Lance. 

“...Thank you,” He says, belated and a little stiffly.

“No problem!” Lance says, cheerfully as he marches forward. “We’re supposed to look out for each other, right? I’ll have your back, and you have mine. Now let’s go save your dragon friend!”

Keith watches Lance trudge through the evergreen at the edge of the beach, and feels a little fondly, looking at him.

 _I don’t get him,_ He thinks, but what he feels is obvious enough.

He never really trusted anyone but Shiro, growing up. It was a hard world out there, and he learned early on that humans and other creatures would stab you in the back given the chance. But he never really learned how to let go and accept other people into his life. He never even spoke to anyone but Shiro in all this time, and he’s surprised he even opened up to anyone at all, not to mention decided to trust a witch.

But he needed help.

And now he was wrapped up with Lance, taking him on a journey to help save Shiro. What did Lance get out of it, anyway? Nothing, as he said earlier that day. It was a little hard for Keith to process. Lance was so… confusing. He didn't even want anything from this trip, or so he said, other than just leaving the island, and to _help_ him--which in general, was something very new to him. Most people wanted something in return. It was weird. But Keith couldn’t deny he was interesting, and he liked him. Wanted to trust him.

Wanted to be _friends_ with him.

“Hey, Keith? I don’t exactly know how to find your house, so a little guidance right now would be stellar!” Lance shouts from a distance, and Keith snaps out of his thoughts. He didn’t have time to think about this right now, even if he wanted to.

“Yeah,” Keith says, and heads toward home, Lance at his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this chapter was a bit all over the place, but i'll work it out in the next two chapters and they'll get their stuff together I PROMISE LOL  
> I tried to write Keith as a bit untrusting of others, but i feel like i just made him come across as wishy washy in his feelings sjlflskdg  
> Also i might end up making this fic 6 chapters woops but we'll see.
> 
>  
> 
> but please tell me your thoughts!! Kudos and comments make my day and make me wanna keep writing!! OvO


	3. Chapter 3

“How did you call those Kelpie, earlier?” Keith asks him as they brush through the trees of the forest, still on the path. Or so Keith calls it--but to Lance, it looks like they’re just getting themselves further lost.

“Oh, so we’re playing twenty questions now?” He asks, pushing branches out of his eyes with one hand as he walks, shaking a hand full of runes in the other.

When he opens his palm, There’s only one of five runes facing up.

ᚻ

He frowns at it, and looks at the sky in confusion. It meant ‘hail’ but it certainly didn’t look like the sun was fading anytime soon. Maybe he shook them wrong.

“The noise you made,” Keith continues on, unfazed. “I didn’t think humans vocal chords could… make calls like that.” 

“Oh,” Lance smiles, pocketing the stones. “Like this--?” 

“Lance you shit, don’t even--”

But it’s too late, and Lance already makes the clicking, screechy noise with his throat, louder than earlier, just to piss off Keith. Which works.

“Can you maybe _not_ do that?” Keith says, clutching at his ears. “You know how we were talking about my warped senses earlier? Yeah. _Not helping._ ”

“Sorry,” Lance says, but he grins through the words and Keith very obviously doesn’t believe him. “So since you already asked something, it’s my turn now.”

Lance pauses for a solid moment before asking, flat out, “What do you even _eat,_ dude? Because like, I took a bite of that ‘steak’ my mom made you earlier--” he feels his own face warp at the memory. “and i spat it right back out because it was weird. And undercooked.” _and definitely not cow,_ he wants to add.

Keith turns to him, eyes glowing dimly in the shade of the overhead trees. “It was Goat. Don’t get many around the sea, do you?”

“No,” Lance squints. “Which makes me wonder where my mom got it…”

“I also eat rabbits.” Keith lists. “And horse, if I’m feeling spontaneous.”

“ _Dude,_ seriously? That’s nasty.”

Keith shrugs. “Humans would be on that list too.” And Lance freezes. “You know, as general dragon food?” Keith says, looking at Lance’s probably ashen face. He huffs out a sigh after a moment. 

“Lance, I’m not going to eat you.”

“But you just said--”

“I don’t eat human. Other dragons do, yeah, but I’m…”

“Don’t you dare pull a ‘I’m not like other girls’ card, Keith.”

“What?” Keith glares at him. “I don’t know what that means.” He sighs. “All I know is that I’ve never personally tried human, and I’m never going to. End of story.”

“Yeah but like--” Lance starts, because he loves to push things. “--Why not? I’m not saying I suddenly want you to take a bite out of my leg tonight to test try it, but is it a moral thing, or is it because they look like you?” _I mean, goat meat can’t be that different from us, can they?_ He thinks, weirdly wondering why Keith seemed so against it.

Again, he really didn’t want to be eaten though. He’s just stupidly curious.

“I just won’t, okay?” He looks legitimately angry, and the fire in those slitted eyes silences him as he says. “So just drop it.” and then he walks ahead, not even waiting for Lance’s response.

Lance doesn’t know what to reply with, but he didn’t mean to offend Keith. What the hell, even? Lance is the one who should be offended, anyway! _He’s the one on the menu!_

Instead of opening his mouth about it, though, he just trucks after Keith, who’s already miles ahead of him. He doesn’t want to get lost, at least.

And it’s not like he didn’t trust Keith. It was surprising, yeah, but he already knew they were omnivores, and violent ones at that. He sort of just… forgot. But it didn’t change his opinion on Keith at all. He still seemed like a pouty fire-breathing lizard in Lance’s eyes.

But whatever. If they weren’t going to talk about it, they weren’t going to.

Minutes later, they make it to the edge of the forest, and they both stop, taking in their new surroundings.

It’s all uphill from here, and Lance has to look upward to see the top of the mountain, which has a slope so vertical it almost looked like a short skyscraper. And they had to _climb_ that. _Hooray._

“Ah, you sure we just can’t camp out here?” Lance whines.

Keith sends him a sharp look from the side. “I told you it’d be rough. And this is just to get to _my house_ ,” Keith hisses. “You thought this would be easy, didn’t you?”

“Of course not.” Lance says, blinking. Did he miss something? “I can do a hike, don’t worry.” He’s more concerned now about the fire in Keith’s voice, and why he’s so angry. What the hell. 

“I’m going to worry, because Shiro’s life is on the line for this.”

And just like a sudden ripple in the waves, Lance’s anger spikes at the words. “Did you just happen to forget you’re injured?” Lance asks. “Because I’m here for you too, you know. You don’t need to get snippy. I want to help you both, and that’s why I’m here.”

“Yeah, well, stop complaining so much, yeah?” Keith says, brows creasing. 

“You’re terrible.” Lance huffs, trying not to feel hurt at Keith’s sudden lashing out. He knew dragons were temperamental and changed their current mood at the drop of a hat, but he didn’t know what he did _wrong._

Well. at least he can be the reasonable adult. For a minute or two at least.

“You need to calm down, okay? I’m not your enemy. Let me help you.” Lance says, and stares at Keith, gaze unwavering. Keith suddenly looks guilty.

“I’m sorry. I just--” Keith looks away, snorting smoke from his nose. Lance tries to not look too hard, but he’d be lying if _that_ wasn’t an interesting sight to see. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. I’m just frustrated. Let’s go, Okay? And stay close to me. This place is dangerous if you get lost.”

And then Keith is ahead of him again, wide strides in between them as he walks up the curvy hill in a rush, eyes forward and not even looking back to see if Lance is with him.

Lance frowns, but follows his lead.

~

Lance learns a few fun facts about Keith as they walk together.

One of the more important ones is this; He’s an honest to goodness dragon at heart, whether he’s in a human body or that of an overgrown chameleon.

When they get to the even more sloped terrain, and Keith glides across the rocks like he’s dancing, and even tugs his body up the crumbling rocks on all fours, nails digging deep into the gravel to haul himself up effortlessly. He had gracefully guided himself all the way to the top of the sloped and broken hiking trail with ease. Which was actually closer to a decent cliff-side, in all honesty.

And then there’s Lance, who had the balance of a giraffe on a tightrope, wobbling his way onto the next biggest boulder when the trail became… a lot less of a trail. And he doesn't know how Keith just _digs_ his nails into the boulders like it’s no big deal--He doesn’t want dirt under his nails. No way.

“Are you coming anytime soon?” Keith calls from the next biggest ledge up ahead, almost smirking down at him as he struggles.

“Shut up.” Lance mutters, trying his best to reach for a high ledge. He didn’t enjoy Keith mocking him, especially when he had natural climbing abilities and Lance _didn't_. Lance was used to swimming and living on flat ground, for crying out loud.

“I can help you, if you need it.” Keith grins, showing off all those sharp teeth. “You’re doing pretty good--for a witch, anyway.” He taunts, wings flapping lightly behind him.

“And just _what_ is that supposed to mean, Keith?” Lance grunts, hauling his body up onto another boulder.

“It means I didn’t expect you to try climbing at all, and hover or fly a broomstick up instead.”

“You and I both know witches don’t fly on broomsticks, and if we did, I’d be kicking your ass up there right now, wouldn't I?” He rolls his eyes dramatically. He hates stereotypes. Keith seems to catch onto that, and smiles briefly.

“Well, you could certainly try.” Keith grins.

“Oh, now you’re challenging me, huh?” Lance mutters. “Well, consider this war, Puff.”

“Puff?” Keith cocks his head.

“You know,” Lance hauls himself up another ledge. He’s just under Keith’s feet, at this point. “Puff? Puff the magic dragon?” 

“I’ve never met a dragon named puff…?” Keith says, confused. Lance almost bursts out laughing, but if he does, he’ll most definitely fall, so he’ll hold it.

“He’s not _real_ , Keith. It’s from a song. And a movie. Ever watched a movie?”

Keith snorts, shaking his head. He’s at eye level with Lance, now, who’s on his tippy toes trying to maintain his height. Keith looked smug, finally being taller--for once.

“You’ve never watched a movie?!” Lance gasps. “Man, have you been living under a rock your whole life, or what??”

“In a cave, Lance. I lived in a cave my whole life.” He holds a hand out for Lance to grab on to, still grinning.

“Oh yeah, right.” He smiles.

Lance eyes the clawed hand warily before latching on, slightly enjoying the warmth of Keith’s hand on his cold fingers as he’s pulled up. And whoa, yep. Keith was pretty strong, despite those thin looking arms. He drags Lance up the side of the mountain like he’s a bag of potatoes or something, and suddenly they’re both on the ledge together, almost nose to nose.

Lance moves to go back, and almost falls right back down the mountainside. 

“Be careful,” Keith says, eyes wide, as he tugs Lance behind him, walking along the trails again.

Keith's hand departs from his, and lance pulls his hands into his sleeves, after that, Tries to remember that warmth.

~

They bicker a lot.

The whole walk and climb to Keith’s fort is filled with bickering and constant jabs, and they’ve practically shoved each other off the cliffsides in annoyance a handful of times and avoided a few accidents, but it has Lance smiling all the same. He hates to say it, but Keith was really fun to be around. It’s the kind of friendship he hasn’t had in a long time, and he wishes he met Keith sooner.

He doesn’t really learn much about Keith on the way up, but they get along like old friends.

And Keith’s mood improves, so that’s a bonus.

When they finally make it to his cave, Lance almost bypasses it, it’s so well concealed. The opening is literally a crawlspace, and dangling vines cover the front and disguise it like it’s just a shady gap in the rocks. It’s not at the top of the mountain either, which is great, because he was getting really tired of walking. Plus, they were running out of daylight, and he didn’t really want to get lost on top of a mountain at nightfall.

“Uh, you first.” Lance says, because it was Keith’s house, and he’s not exactly sure what he’s going to find when he gets in there.

Also, there might be spiders.

And if there _is_ spiders, they’ll attack Keith first this way. Win-win.

Keith rolls his eyes, but pulls his wings close to his body, getting on his knees to crawl through the entrance. Lance follows after a moment, internally crying about how dirty he’s going to get from this experience. _and no bathing until we find Shiro,_ he reminds himself on repeat, feeling worse.

He doesn’t have claustrophobia, okay? But the entrance is really something. And by really something he means _super small_ and _how the hell is he gonna get through this._

He’s mildly panicking, because he can’t even turn around it’s so tight, and on top of that it’s dark as hell so it’s not like he even knows where he’s going, or if there’s going to be a sudden drop and he’s going to snap his neck on the bottom of some cave and Keith won’t be able to find him.

Speaking of Keith, Lance can’t hear him at all in front of him. It’s like the cherry topper to his anxiety cake.

But then there’s the faintest light pouring into his vision, and he blindly follows it, since there’s nothing else to follow. Also, he’s tired of smacking into walls, so light is a promise of _something_ better, he’s sure.

When he gets out of the tunnel, he doesn’t realize he’s in a large room until he moves his head upward and realizes he’s not smacking into tunnel. And then he looks around, as his eyes adjust.

And it’s _amazing._

The room is big. Everything’s sort of huge to him right now cause’ that tunnel was terribly tight, but the room is _tall_. And it’s got moss growing along the rock cave walls and vines tumbling down like a curtain from the roof, some with small, pink flowers, and some with yellow.

And there was Gold littering the floors, did he mention that? Coins were haphazardly scattered along the soft mossy and dirt floors of the cave in silver and gold, coupled with sparkling jewel beads, rings and even plates of armor at random. Some of it was stacked, or placed on ledges along the cave, but Lance could even see a few boxes stacked high, and he wonders if those are filled with treasure, too. 

Not only jewels, but leather books, long lengths of material, rugs, furs, and a few random trinkets and everyday items were among the jewels too.

It was definitely a dragon hoard. 

It takes a moment, but he realizes the light in the room is from a few torches placed along the sides, which yeah, a little dangerous with all the flammable greenery, but it illuminates the jewels and gold so prettily. There’s also fresh air, he’s noticing belatedly, and if he focuses real hard up above he sees little glimmers of sunshine--just not enough for light purposes. but there was holes among the vines in the roof of dirt, connecting to the surface. 

It was like some sort of ancient treasure trove, something pirates were after in the movies of his childhood.

“Keith, this is amazing!” He says, maybe a little too loud, because it echoes up the walls.

When he turns his head, Keith finishes lighting another torch, and comes to sit by Lance, eyes bright and glowing like the amethysts lying about. He smiles at Lance, wide and open. 

“You like it?”

“Hell yeah I like it!” He shouts, once again. “How’d you find all this stuff?”

Keith shrugs, holding his knees close as he sits beside Lance. “Some of it is Shiro’s, so I don’t know about his stash, but I found most things from just about everywhere on this island.” He picks up a string of pearls from the dirt. “I mean, when I wasn’t lying around or hiding, I was usually out, scouring for anything that sparkled. You’d be surprised what some people miss.”

“Keith, not to be rude, but I don’t think you found all of this stuff just _lying around_ outside. It looks like you raided a pirate ship!” He throws his arms out, and points to the stack of gold coins with designs scrolled on, maybe centuries old. “Like, it looks like you broke into a museum! Where’d you get half of these things?”

Keith sinks into the floors, wings stretching out as he relaxes more--it was probably nice to, after being gone from it for a while. “I found the money in the forest,” He says. “Not all of it, but unless you know your way around this island like I do, it’s like walking through a maze.”

Lance gulps. “You don’t mean…”

Keith nods. “I found a lot of travelers out there. Or bones of them, at least. They had lots of interesting things, from different places in the world.”

“You stole from the dead, what the hell Keith.” Lance says.

“It’s not like they were going to do anything with it, right?” Keith says, blunt. “And besides. It’s not like I did it without mourning. I gave everyone i found a proper burial on this island.”

Lance stares at him for a moment, speechless.

“What?” Keith says, gaze narrowed.

“You… you did that for a bunch of strangers?”

Keith blinks. “Well, they deserved that much, at least. They were all travelers, most of them human. They probably just wanted to search new land and then…” Keith shakes his head. “They didn’t deserve to be left there, is all i’m saying.”

Lance continues to stare. 

“Is that weird?” Keith asks.

“No,” Lance says quickly. “It’s just… you’re a good guy, Keith.”

Keith frowns at him. “I’m not. You just said yourself I stole from them.”

“Ok, well, there’s that, but You don’t think that’ a nice thing to do for them?”

“Maybe,” Keith agrees. “But…The stealing. It’s not even the worst I’ve done.” He says, eyes distant. “I wouldn’t say I’m a good guy.” And then his lips are pulled down again and Lance wonders what he said wrong, this time. The heavy atmosphere doesn’t stick for long though, Keith breaking the silence with a question.

“Lance?”

“Yeah buddy?”

“What’s….” he squints. “What’s a _mew-sea-um_?”

Lance gapes for a moment, silently enjoying this moment.

He mentally makes a note to take Keith to one, after they had finished their mission. Maybe enjoy watching Keith’s pain at not being able to take any of it home at the end of the day. It’d be a sight, that’s for sure.

~

They relax, for a little while.

That short while ends up turning into a long while when they both take an accidental nap, getting lost in stories about the adventures Keith had with Shiro, collecting some of the stuff in their hoard. And then Keith shaking him awake, and he realizes just how dark the cave got, still warm by the fires, but definitely with a cool breeze coming in from above.

They almost run out of the cave, cursing about lost time.

It was nice while it lasted, though. And it's not his fault he fell asleep-- it was the stupidly warm furs placed in a nest.

“Ah, shoot.” Keith mutters, on their way out the tunnel. This time, Lance is used to the darkness to some extent, so he can see just faintly Keith’s silhouette in front of him as they crawl. 

“What? What is it?” Lance demands, slightly nervous.

“It’s pouring out.” Keith groans. “We can’t leave, now. It’s going to be like a mudslide out there.” He growls again in frustration, and Lance blinks.

 _Ah. So the runes didn’t lie earlier, then._. “Didn’t you say we had to continue on, no matter what?”

“Yeah, but--!” Keith starts, wings angrily trying to flap in the small space. “I’m not stupid. It would be dangerous to head out in that weather, and I’m not going to risk either of us slipping off a cliff at this rate.”

Lance rolls his eyes. “Don’t be a baby. It’s just a little water.”

“Lance, I just said--”

“Did you forget what my element was, Keith?”

“No, but--”

“Then you’re going to trust me, and we’ll be fine. Okay?” Lance says, almost grinning ear to ear at the annoyed sound Keith makes in protest. It was definitely the sound of Keith giving up.

They continue to crawl out of the cave, and when they stand, it really is pouring out. Keith looks to the side at Lance, as if asking if they were really going to trudge through that.

Which, of course, they were.

Lance walks into the rain, welcoming the cold dousing his skin. “Take your bandaging off, kay’ Keith? I can clean the wound better with this.”

“Alright,” Keith responds, a little quietly, before peeling off the taped bandages with a wince. Lance walks forward, pointing to the wing.

“Can I touch?” Lance asks. 

Keith looks a little nervous, but nods, slowly. Stretches out the wing for him. “If you must.”

Lance calmly moves close, and pressed his fingers around the wound without touching, bringing water from all sides to wash gently at the injury. 

Keith grunts a little, but bears with it, clenching his teeth. Lance stops soon after, and pulls fresh herb salve and bandages from one of the pockets in his bag, completely dry from being under his cloak.

“That stuff stinks.” Keith wrinkles his nose.

“The salve?” Lance asks.

“No,” Keith says, staring at the bag at his hip. “The other stuff you grabbed. The lavender.”

“Dragons don’t like lavender?” Lance blinks, looking down at his bag, and the few sprigs of it sticking out. Could Keith really smell that in the rain? And how come he couldn’t smell it earlier?

“No, it makes us dizzy, and gives us headaches.” He shrugs. “You better not be putting that anywhere my wing.”

Lance frowns at it. “It relieves pain, if I make it into a paste.”

Keith’s face scrunches up. “I can live with a little pain.”

“Suit yourself, then.” He says, and tucks them away.

It could made sense in a way, if he thought about it. It had a calming effect on humans for sleep, after all, so maybe it had effects like that on dragons as well? Maybe stronger, hence the headaches?

“...But the goldenrod salve I’m about to use is okay, right?” Lance confirms.

Keith nods. “That one is fine. It doesn’t stink.”

Lance squints at him before shaking his head and opening the tin. Dragons were weird. Weird and _picky_.

He packs the balm onto the injury and around it, keeping the downpouring rain water from touching the wound. He’d just dried it, after all. He then places waterproof bandage around the arch of the wing like his mother had shown him earlier, so that Keith could still move the wing if necessary, but holding it strapped close enough so he couldn’t pull the wound and stitches further. He smiles at his work as it’s done, and puts his hands on his hips, smiling at Keith.

“And voila! How does it feel?”

Keith tries to move the wing, wincing the slightest bit, but nodding. “It’s sturdy. It will do.” and pulling his wings back close, he adds. “You’re pretty good at this.”

And Lance would be lying if that compliment didn’t send his heartbeat of whack just a smidge. 

“Th-thanks.” He says dumbly, watching Keith walk to the edge of the cliff, but not too close.

Wait.

“Why did we come here, anyway?” Lance asks suddenly, a little confused. Shiro wasn’t in this direction at all, and Keith insisted they needed to go.

“Oh,” Keith looks to him briefly, and digs in his pants pocket for something. “I needed this.”

He holds up a string of pearls the size of the last third of his thumb, opalescent and glimmery.

“You needed a pearl bracelet...?” Lance asks, slightly bewildered. “I could have _easily_ given you one! I have like, ten in my bag.” He was almost amazed at how ridiculous this was. And Keith said _he_ was slowing them down. Amazing. 

Keith rolls his eyes. “It’s not _just_ a pearl bracelet, Lance. It’s Shiro’s.”

Lance isn’t connecting the dots, though Keith is talking as if he should be understanding this, by now.

Keith sighs. “I’m not great at explaining, but…” He puts the bracelet back in his pocket. “Most dragons get… possessive. Of a thing, or someone.”

Lance still feels like he’s lost. “Yeah, and Shiro’s protective of a bracelet…?”

Keith pulls at his own hair, looking frustrated. “No, you still don’t get it.” He sighs. “We can get extremely temperamental, you know that at least, right?”

“That I do.”

“It’s in our nature like that, and we _need_ something to keep safe. For some, it’s a specific treasure.” He rambles. “And for others, it’s a person. And whatever the case is, we keep that item, or person, or whatever _safe_ , no matter what.” He stares at Lance, as if trying to drill in the thought with a solid stare. “For the rest of our lives.”

“And that thing is a piece of jewelry in Shiro’s case, is what you’re saying.” 

Keith snorts. “Not so much the pearl bracelet as the person who gave it to him, but he might not recognize me if I don’t bring it, so…”

Well that certainly alarms Lance. “Wait, _what?_ ”

Keith blinks. “Pidge said he was stressed, right? Unlike me, he’s probably not even in human form. He might not be all that there right now, if something’s happened to him...” Keith frowns, like he doesn’t want to think about it. Lance doesn’t either, so it’s understandable. If it’s a hunter who’s got Shiro, he can be sure that can’t mean anything good. “I’m just hoping he’ll recognize that, at least.” 

Lance tries and fails to act calm, jaw hanging open as he stares, wide eyed at Keith. “So what you’re telling me is that even if we _do_ find him, he still might try and attack us?”

“I’m hoping that he’s aware enough to be able to recognize me if he was in that kind of state, but yeah.”

Lance blinks, trying to process this. “And this isn’t weird to you at all? That you’re brother-caretaker-whatever might just up and attack you?”

Keith smiles sadly. “Have you forgotten that we’re beasts, Lance?”

Lance’s eyes skim up and down Keith, taking in the very human-like appearance, save for the wings and scales and sharp, glowing eyes.

It was certainly easy to be around Keith, in all his human morality and looks, to forget that he was a giant reptile and slept his days away underground when he wasn’t on the search for his brother. It was strange to think about after seeing Keith, knowing that the others--some of them at least--were not like Keith _at all_. 

That they ate humans. That they required protecting a specific something for the entirety of their lives. That they might not even be able to recognize their kin under stress. 

It’s all strange to him.

“I didn’t forget.” Lance says, throat dry, and feels like he’s lying. 

They continue down the path, leaving Keith’s nest behind. 

“By the way,” Lance asks, as an afterthought. “What do you protect, then?”

Keith stares at him, eyes open and inquiring. He’s at a standstill, halfway down the path, looking at Lance with an unreadable look, as he takes in Lance. 

“Who knows,” He says, and jumps back down the boulder covered path they came from.

 _Way to be cryptic, Keith._ Lance thinks, walking on and feeling the exhaustion start to creep up on him.

~

Lance shelters them from most of the rain as they walk back through the forest. It’s the least he could do, considering he was the one who made Keith come through this storm with him.

They could have been safe and warm for the night, he reminds himself sadly.

The storm is worse at the edge of the beach.

When they came through earlier, the waves were calm and flat, just a little bit of turbulence from the kelpie’s arrival. The sun had warmed the edges of the waters considerably. There were crabs skittering along the beach in groups, it was so peaceful.

Now, there was waves crashing all the way up to the trees, waters stressed with grey bubbles and mud, washing up to his shins with a sharp splash onto his thighs. The trees were fluttering about like loose petals, branches and palm tree leaves flying among the watery debris. Clouds covered the light of day, making it darker than it would’ve otherwise been, and he almost expected thunder to blare out.

He turns to Keith, who looks ashen and sick by this point.

“Are we riding the Kelpies through this…?” He asks, as if the option was the last string of hope in this situation, this time around. Lance shakes his head.

“Nah, they won’t hear us in this weather.” Lance’s eyes glimmer, almost mischievous, as he says “I have a better idea.” and waits for the moment as the waves pull back out, before grabbing Keith by the wrist, and running outward into the shallows. 

“What are you doing!” Keith all but screams. “Lance! This isn’t safe!”

“Trust me!” Lance yells, and keeps him steady, eyes telling him he’s sure. Keith gulps, and looks on the incoming wave with awe and terror. 

Except this wave is much bigger than Lance had hoped, but if he’s honest, that makes it all the better.

“On the count of three!” Lance screams at Keith, his words silenced by the storm.

“One,” He says staring at the wave.

“What?! What are we doing?” Keith screams back.

“Two,” Lance says, his grip tightening on Keith’s wrist. If this was to work, they needed to be close. He pulls Keith to his side, feeling the warmth at his back. It strangely gives him enough confidence to pull everything off, Keith unmoving from his side. _Trusting him._

They’re thigh deep in water at this point, and Keith seems nervous, but trailing after him like he was told. 

“Three!” He shouts, and runs as best as he can into the oncoming tidal wave, as if it wouldn’t push them right back at the trees with one hell of a punch.

He closes his eyes, prays, and Keeps Keith’s hand tightly in his.

The wave engulfs them.

~

He opens one eye and peers around, biting a his lip hard as he smiles.

The wave was above them now, and all around them, really. They could proceed like this, encased in a bubble of air while the waves go around them. They wouldn't have to deal with the rain this way, either. And the water had blocked out most of the noise from the storm, as well.

He can’t believe he actually did it--no mess ups this time.

Not that he doubted himself. Not too much, anyway.

“Keith,” He murmurs, pulling at his hand. When he looks to Keith, his smile gets even bigger.

Keith is looking in awe at the water surrounding them, like a little kid at the fair for the first time. His eyes don’t look so slitted and dangerous, and for once look almost human. Pupils round and intrigued as he takes it all in.

“Like it?” Lance asks, and Keith looks at him for the first time, briefly nodding. 

“I didn’t know what you were doing, but this is…”

“It’s _cool,_ right? You were going to say cool.” Lance feels himself beaming.

Keith smirks. “It was _alright._ ” Lance’s smile drops.

“One day you’ll compliment me. One day.” He swears, pointing to Keith. He pulls his wand out of his bag, a short length of driftwood with a pointed piece of crystal quartz bonded to the end. At his touch, it lights up just faintly, a blue aura coming off of it--enough glow to light their trail. Keith eyes the gem with interest.

“If you say so,” Keith retorts. And they continue onward, into the depths.  
~

The walk in soggy ocean sand is a lot longer than he expected, and frankly, Lance is tired.

He did this kind of trick as a kid in the shallows, but he messed up a lot--letting the waves crash in on him by accident over half the time, and would get swept deeper into the tides from causing turmoil in calm waters.

These were _not_ calm waters.

And he didn’t have the option of messing up, this time. Keith was here, and they were at the bottom of the ocean, so if he lost concentration for even a few moments he might end up caving their little air bubble in.

When they started, they were at the shore, so it was still light enough, but now the only form of luminescence was Keith’s eyes, a faint purple under the waves, and the faint light emanating from Lances wand. 

Lance knew they were going the right way, only because of the map in his hands, if he was still following it correctly. Pidge’s scribbly writing would probably be the death of him, though.

They were definitely in the deep of the ocean now, and all around them was eerie silence, and darker shadows from above. They might have been just the kelp tangling above their heads, _or_ they could’ve been sharks, or whales.

The whole scenario makes Keith jumpy.

“Are you afraid of water, or something?” Lance asks, a little unsure. “You said you hated it before, didn’t you?”

Keith's eyes trail up from the ground to Lance. He looks conflicted. “I, uh, don’t particularly like it but it’s not bad like…. A quarter of the time. It looks pretty when the sun is setting.”

Lance lets out a sudden laugh. “Is it really that bad for you otherwise?”

“Well,” Keith sighs. “I just… I don’t… don’t know--.”

“Today, Keith!”

“I don’t know how to swim that well, alright?” At the look Lance sends back at him, he shrivels just a bit more. “Okay, _at all._ I don’t know how to swim at all. _Don’t say anything._ ”

“Aren’t you like, eighteen or so?” Lance squints, judging. 

“I said _don’t_ say anything!”

Lance laughs loudly once again, ignoring the stressed out groans from behind him. “I’m just teasing you, Keith. I know it’s not your element. It’s not the weirdest thing I’ve heard, I guess.” He shrugs. It was a little weird to not know how to swim at their age--but then again, it’s not like Lance would react well to _flying_ so suddenly, like Keith had been doing all his life. It was just natural to both of them.

“I have a fear of heights.” Lance says suddenly, in hope of making him feel better. “Everyone is afraid of something.”

“I’m not _afraid,_ ” Keith hisses. “And what do you mean? You scaled half the mountain on my island just fine--” and then stops talking, mid sentence. Lance looks over his shoulder at Keith, who looks guilty. “...That’s why you wanted to camp at the bottom of the mountain, wasn’t it?” He swallows. “I shouldn’t have made fun of you. I’m… I’m sorry.”

Lance double takes, blinking in awe. “It’s okay. You didn’t know.” Keith still looked like a kicked puppy, shoulders drooping, so he continues. “I was alright then, anyway, because you were there.” Lance says, and feels the imminent bloom of heat making it’s way up his neck from his words. He doesn’t even dare look at Keith. “I mean, I knew I could trust you, and you wouldn’t just let me fall. And you live there--so of course you know where all the shaky ledges and weak spots on the ground would be...” he cuts himself off. “Yeah. I just. Knew I’d be safe with you, okay? Shutting up now.” 

Keith is quiet in response.

He stops rambling, and tries to focus ahead, even if the distractions of conversation were rather welcomed in this situation. The ocean around them was dark and silent, and although Lance usually felt at home and welcome here, it was a little different this time. He wasn’t at home--this wasn’t the regular places he’s been, and he didn’t know what was lurking out here--if it’d be _friendly_. 

And just as that thought arises, he hears a noise.

“Hold on,” He quiets Keith, holding a hand up to his lips. He stares around them, holding the wand up to the edge of the bubble at the blackness of the waters--looking for a sign of movement, or another sound. The last one had been like a sounding clap in echo. Maybe a piece of seaweed snapping? Or two rocks clacking together?

There wasn’t much that could make noise underwater, after all.

And from somewhere behind him, the noise rings out again. He flips around, wand in hand, just to inspect. Keith’s sharp ears are twitching, and his eyes are darting around uncomfortably.

And as Lance squints further at the water, he swears he sees _shapes_.

And then there’s a clawed hand reaching for his throat.

He doesn’t get much time to think, but he does feel the the webbing of those thin, bone like fingers try to catch around his neck, and jerk him forward into the cold ocean, face first, right out of the bubble. 

And comes face to face with a siren. Perfect.

The one creature in the ocean he _doesn’t_ get along with.

His concentration is beyond shattered at this point, and he knows there’s no bubble to return back to, even if he does get those hands off his throat. At this point he’s thrashing hard, trying to kick the thing away, without much luck. He can’t even breathe, yet the only thing on his mind is _Where is Keith? Is he okay? Keith, Keith, **Keith--**_

And then the siren is pulled off him, and he still can’t breathe, leaving him choking on sea-water instead, Coughing violently on it until the water goes to his head, leaving him fuzzy.

He never really thought he would drown, being a sea witch and all.

It’s almost a funny thought, but he can’t laugh. He’s still breathing the water in like air, body seeming to give up on him. 

He sees Keith, a bit blurry, tangling with the siren that was just on him.

 _Keith doesn’t know how to swim._ Is the first thing that enters his mind, and despite feeling sick and unable to breath, it’s the thought that keeps him upright.

Lance has to act _fast._

They’re deep enough underwater that the bubble of air hasn’t traveled that far--especially since it was so large. With the best of his ability, he halts it in place, trying to pull some of it back to breath in.

His vision is foggy, but he somehow manages to pull some of the bubble back down to them. Not all of it, but enough, and he inhales as it encompasses his head, and chokes in just enough oxygen before he dives back into the action with lungs full of air.

The siren and Keith are still fighting, but Keith is floundering, and Lance turns to them just in time to watch Keith get a giant, bony tail smacked into his stomach, and choke on water just as Lance did himself, moments ago. 

The great thing about being a sea witch was, in this situation, he was in the best surroundings for a fight. And now, with a clear head, he could pull it off.

With a swift notion, he twines the scattered kelp growing around the siren’s tail with the force of the water, and tugs it violently away from Keith, who floats a little helplessly.

The siren falters about in confusion as it gets tangled and dragged, but focuses soon on Lance, and realizes it’s him who’s behind it. The thing screams, and hisses through the water as Lance drags it down with the best of his ability, letting it get pulled into the seaweed thicker than ropes, watching it resort to hissing wildly, showing off two sets of sharp teeth while writhing and trying to escape.

Just when he thinks he’s in the clear, there’s suddenly another one at his side, making itself known by dragging it’s nails though his leg, letting more bubbles spurt from his mouth in a silenced scream.

He sees his own blood clouding the waters, but he tries to ignore that. He kicks the siren off his leg, throwing a gust of water back at the thing in an underwater whirlwind, making it screech and swim away.

He didn’t want to stick around here much longer. Sirens did travel in packs, and he didn’t know if those were the only two.

Lance swims as fast as he can, grabbing at a floating, barely conscious Keith along with him. He wasn’t moving.

He holds him by the arm, and losing the last of his breath, he propels them to the surface, just barely breaching the waters after a few moments.

He kicks his feet wildly, gulping in air as he flips Keith up, who was looking very pale.

“Keith!” He screeches, holding his head up out of the water, and dreading that ice cold skin that was always warm, always soft--feel ice cold in his palms. He heavy and weightless all at the same time in his arms. Lance needed to get him to safety. Lance needed him to _breathe_

The storm had calmed, which was a relief, but a low fog had settled, making the closest island to them just visible by a silhouette.

Keith still wasn’t breathing, and Lance panics.

~

“...k....th.”

“...eith!”

“....ake up….”

**“Keith!”**

When Keith opens his eyes, it’s Lance that’s staring down at him, eyes wide and frightened.

Everything’s still a little blurry, especially his head. He swears there’s two of Lance. 

In a moments time, he’s coughing, waking up abruptly as seawater flies pours out his lips and onto the sand beside him. The way he’s retching sounds terrible to his ears, but he can’t exactly feel it. His whole body is cold, and a little numb at that. His feet are kind of tingly, even.

“ _Oh, Thank God,_ ” Lance says, sounding breathless, as he pushes his head into Keith’s chest. He can’t say he minds exactly, but he is confused.

“What…. What happened?”

“A bunch of sirens found us, is what.” Lance says, shaking in his arms. “I’m so glad you’re okay, I’m so glad, I didn’t know what to do, I thought you were--”

“Hey,” Keith stops him, patting his back to get him to sit up. To face him. When Lance does, Keith can now see his eyes are dark, and red-rimmed. Keith frowns.

“How long was I... out?”

“I don’t know,” Lance says. “But you were barely breathing--We were out in the water, and we were so far off from land, Keith.” he inhales deeply, and Keith feels bad, hearing the pain in his voice. “I called the kelpies back, and they saved you. But you still weren’t waking up and I didn’t know what to do--”

He could hear Lance getting almost _frantic_ again, and he puts a hand on his shoulder, which quiets him considerably. His eyes are still shut tight, as he leans into Keith.

“Are you okay?” He asks Lance, and receives a wet cough of a laugh in return. 

“No, of course not. That was awful.”

“But are you hurt?” Keith asks. “They attacked you too.” 

He doesn't have to look at his own arms to know there’s light scratching on them, but at least he’s not bleeding from anything. He just felt sore, and cold. He could use a fire about now.

“Ah, just…” Lance winces, pulling his leg out from under him. “Just my leg.”

And Keith’s eyes go wide as he takes in the three long stripes of bloody torn flesh, gashes more than an inch deep and still running wild with blood. The smell comes up to him in a wave, the iron meeting his senses and the anger he feels as he takes the sight in.

He only realizes he’s growling when Lance puts the leg away, staring at him in surprise.

“I’m going to kill them,” Keith threatens. 

“Good luck finding them,” Lance snorts, standing up and _limping_. “They’re sirens. They’re probably an ocean away by now.”

Keith stands with him. “They hurt you. You think that’s funny?”

“It’s just scratches,” Lance waves off. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes it does--”

“It doesn’t.” Lance says again, gaze cold as he stares at Keith. Keith’s rage melts away into concern, as Lance stares forward and walks on, into the fog. “Let’s find shelter, okay? It’s late.” He says, words dry and unfeeling.

Keith suppresses a shiver as he follows along, willing the numbness in his legs to leave as he trudges on.

~

They find a small abandoned cave on the near outskirts of the forest, and set up a fire once Lance had dried their clothes off. They find logs and rocks for makeshift seating, and pull up stray branches to the opening of the entrance to keep the warmth in.

Keith’s a little worried, he’s not going to lie.

Lance had barely said five words since they made it off the beach, and it was starting to concern him. Lace was a chatterbox, and a loved to fill the open silences with words, whether it be making puns or humming a silly song or telling him stories to make the time pass. 

Silence was not something Lance Mcclain did well in the few days Keith knew him.

There was nothing but the crackling of fire, and the sound of the wind for the longest time before Lance spoke again.

“I’m sorry,” Is what he says, in a small voice. “I failed you out there, when you trusted me and I’m--” he puts his head in his lap, legs pulled close to himself. “--I’m sorry.”

Keith doesn’t know what to say, at first. He gets closer to Lance, who had taken refuge on the other side of the cave, curled up tight by himself even though it was clear he was cold. He was only human, after all. He didn’t warm up as fast as Keith did.

“Hey--” He starts again, hovering a hand over Lance’s shoulder, even when he knows it might not be a good time to touch him. But he wants to comfort him. “It wasn’t your fault, okay? Who could have seen something like that coming?”

“ _I_ should’ve!” Lance says, angrily. “I should’ve been able to see them coming.” Lance turns to him, fury in his eyes. “You think I’m a bad witch, just say it. I almost got you killed, and I don’t want you playing it off like it was okay, because it wasn’t, and I’m such an idiot for even thinking I could handle something like that--”

“Hey!” Keith interrupts again, raising his voice as well. “You aren’t bad because you couldn’t see a siren in pitch black waters, how did you jump to that conclusion?” 

“We almost died and got eaten by sirens because of me,” Lance says, seriously. “I should have been able to--to lure them away better, or something. I should have been able to sense them in the first place!” He screams in frustration, throwing his hands around in pointed gestures. “I’m supposed to be helping you, but I just feel like I’m being more of a drag on this mission at this point.” he looks back at the ground again, still shaking. “You almost died, Keith. Because of me. Don’t you get it?”

Keith kneels at his side, close to the fire as he leans into Lance. 

If Lance needed encouragement, Keith could be that for him. Lance was amazing, and Keith didn’t know how he was only focusing on the bad parts, here.

“You’re not a bad sea witch,” Keith says, firm enough for Lance to look up at him with wobbly eyes. “You brought us across the ocean, for starters. How on earth would I have gotten here myself?” He laughs mirthlessly. “You did it twice. And Yeah, sirens attacked us, and the bubble broke. But we got out of it alive because of you,” Keith says, and Lance’s eyes get just a bit glossier. “You took on a siren, and fought it off. You brought us both safe to shore, Lance.” He smiles fondly “If it weren’t for you, I’d still be on your home island, wondering what to do right about now. I would have gone and done something stupid, and been unable to get this far. Do you get it now?” He asks, searching Lance’s eyes. 

“You didn’t let me down. You saved my life, and you’re beating yourself up for it. You didn’t lose my trust, if that’s what you were worried about. The toughest of witches probably don’t take on a siren everyday, Lance. You did amazing.”

It’s probably the most Keith has said at the same time in a long while, but he needs Lance to understand where he’s coming from. Half the time he hated to admit it, but he liked help. And Lance was his friend. He wanted to be there for him.

Lance mumbles something under his breath, and Keith’s ears twitch.

“What did you say?” He asks.

“I said,” Lance looks up at him from the ground again, a wobbly grin settling. “I beat up two sirens, not one.”

Keith grins at him, and like they were before, Lance saddles up close to Keith, warming by the fire with their arms touching. It’s a tender moment, and Keith enjoys it to the fullest. He doesn’t like seeing Lance upset, or so he’s learning. He trusts Lance.

“So, what’s with you and other magical creatures, huh?” Lance asks, making Keith roll his eyes. “I mean, I’ve wanted to know for a while now, but why are you so... Jumpy around them?”

He knows it’s just a subject change from their last topic, but he’ll humor Lance. Just this once.

“...I stole from a fae by accident, once.” he relives the memory briefly, eyes settled on the fire. “It was some kind of glowy stone to me, but it was a fae artifact, I’m sure. Or something important to them. They didn’t appreciate that I stole it, and I woke up to having my scales changed color by a temporary curse.” He pouts. “I had splotchy yellow scales for about two weeks.” The gem had _definitely_ not been worth it.

“Whoa, really?” Lance grins, a laugh spouting from his lips. “I can’t believe _that’s_ why you were scared of Pidge!” Lance sighs happily. “ I can’t wait to tell them about this.”

“ _Don’t_.” 

“You can’t give me quality stuff like that and expect me not to share it!” Lance retorts, hands up in surrender. His laugh is contagious, and Keith finds himself smiling the slightest bit, too. 

“So why are you afraid of Kelpie, then?” Lance asks, head cocked to the side.

Keith groans. “I don’t have anything against kelpie, but…” he shrugs his shoulders. “Anything I’m not familiar with makes me… nervous. I guess. And it’s a water creature, so yeah, definitely.”

Lance shrugs. “Fair enough.”

“Tell me something about yourself now.” Keith grumbles.“To make it even. If I’m telling you embarrassing things, I at least expect a good story in return. Like how you learned to do that in the first place? With the water.” 

“Oh, no thank you.” Lance smiles. “I’m enjoying this blackmail session. Please continue.”

“ _Lance._ ”

“Fine, fine.” He replied, still grinning in a sly way.

He coughs after a moment, clearing his throat. “So, I was always the middle kid, right? Like-- I had an older brother and sister, and then I had two little twin siblings right after that.” He sighs. “It was kind of nuts, but my older brother was the smart one, and My elder sister is talented in witchcraft like my mother, too. Then my sibling’s were both the tiny cute ones, so they always got attention for that.” Lance shrugs. “I probably tried too hard to get attention, but it worked, most of the time?”

“So you learned all of this stuff to impress them?” Keith blinks. It’s not the story he expected. 

“More like… get them to notice me.” He smiles lopsidedly. “It’s a little difficult when you’re in a family of five, right dead center in the middle.”

“I wouldn’t know.” Keith says, not to be an ass--he’s just never had that problem before. Luckily, Lance doesn’t take it that way.

“Well, I’ll tell you-- it’s hard.” Lance snorts. “I wasn’t the best sea witch at first, but it was in my blood, so I knew I could do it if I practiced long enough.” Lance smiles, memories coming to mind. All those mess ups, and the feeling when he finally did something right… “I would try to push and pull the waves for days on end, staying up late, keeping my projects in secret. I didn’t learn healing techniques with potions like my sister studied in, but I learned how to move the waves at will, so I definitely caught my parents attention when I showed them one day what I could do.”

“And?” Keith prompts.

“And--My mom and dad were proud of me. But I…” He rubs his neck, ashamed. “I still don’t know how to get their attention, sometimes. I did crazy tricks like the thing with the bubble underwater to make them look at me but it was just seen as some kind of joke, most of the time.” Lance shrugs. “It’s not actual talent, in their eyes. Half the time they think I’m not serious enough about being a witch--that I’m just fooling around.” and there it is. Keith watches him carefully as he slides down the log, eyes trained on the fire. “I kind of wanted to prove her wrong this time. Thought she might think better of me if I did something right.”

Lance laughs suddenly. “Not much of a blackmail story, but at least you know why I wanted to come so bad now.” His eyes widen. “Not that I don’t want to help Shiro, too! Because trust me, I do. I just have another reason to get away from home, and it wasn’t gold, like you seemed to think at first.” He snorts.

Keith finally speaks after sparks fly out of the fire, once again.

“Did you ever tell them how you feel?”

“What?”

“Did you tell your family how you felt about that?” Keith asks, eyes staring intently at his, concern and something caring coming over him. He didn’t like Lance feeling insecure about his magic. Lance was great at what he did, and he was putting himself down just because he didn’t get the right attention for his powers. But what he could do was still _amazing_ , and it probably saved their lives today.

Uh… No, I guess.” Lance shakes his head with a small laugh. “It sounds stupid in retrospect, but I felt shy with those kind of feelings. I didn’t want their pity and added support because I _asked_ for it.”

“You should,” Keith smiles. “Your mother--she seems very understanding. I don’t think she meant to make you feel that way.”

“Maybe,” Lance hums, ducking his face into the crook of his arm. Melancholic feelings flood the air again, as they quiet down.

Keith decides it was a good time to share something about himself, this time.

“I don’t--” Keith says abruptly. “I don’t have a family. I mean--I did. When i was small, but Shiro is my only ‘family’ now.”

 _Great start to the story, Keith_ He scolds himself.

Lance turns to Keith, and he feels his lips turn in an awkward fashion as he tries to force out words, not looking Lance in the eye as he speaks.

“When I was young--maybe four or five--I had a mother and a father” Keith says. “My father died early on, I don’t even remember his face. I don’t know too much about myself from that time, but I do remember the day my mother left me.” He says, voice quiet. “She blamed me for it, is all i remember. Stopped liking me once my father passed on...The memories of them are a little foggy.” He shrugs.

“...Why would she stop liking you?” Lance inquires, eyes narrowing.

“She was human,” Keith says. “And my father was a dragon.”

“Oh.” Lance’s eyes widen. “So that’s why you don’t eat--?”

“Yeah.” Keith says, not wanting to go back to the human diet topic once again. “I don’t know if her feelings until that point were fake, but… I think she got sick of seeing me. I think I reminded her of him, being a dragon and all, and she became... disgusted with me.” Keith cowers at that, avoiding Lance’s gaze as he opps for looking at the flames and trying not to feel too bitter--too pained, after all this time. Even if he was okay with it now, it still sucked. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t jealous at the large family Lance had.

“I tried living by myself after that, and I practically went wild, never making a permanent home, and attacking anything that came too close…” Keith closes his eyes. “Shiro found me like that, and took me in, even though he was only a few years older than myself. He helped me to transforming back into a human again and to regain sanity, in a way.” He shrugs.” And you know the rest. I’ve been with him since.”

All is silent for a long moment, before Lance leans into him, head against his shoulder. 

“I’m sorry,” Lance says quietly. “That’s rough, and you didn’t deserve that.”

Keith shrugs against him. “I’m okay with it now. I used to want to find her, to reach out to her after all that I went through, but….” He sighs. “Now it just seems like a bad idea. I don’t want to find her anymore. I’d rather look for Shiro.”

Lance smiles. “We’ll find him. Don’t worry. And Keith?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for telling me about that. It... It means a lot.” With those words, he leans back right into Keith, both of them practically snuggling by the fire at this point. Keith’s breath catches in his throat, heart hammering.

“Yeah. No problem.” he chokes out.

It’s the most either of them say for the rest of the night, falling asleep soon after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this update took so long! I hope the size of the chapter will make up for the wait, though.   
> I hope this chapter wasn't too bad ;; I feel worse and worse about every chapter i post pftpfptfptbtbt


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG I HOPE THE UPDATE SUFFICES!!!  
> PLEASE ENJOY ~

When Lance wakes up, he feels the sun drifting into the cave and warming his cheeks, and the crank in his neck. Not to mention the warm pillow he’s lying on, which is definitely an arm. His leg is numb with sleep, pins and prickles running through his calf as he moves it around as he groans and stretches.

Scratch that; _tries_ to move. 

Except there’s a warm, scaled tail curled around his calf like a lifeline, and a clawed dragon leg (arm?) around his waist like a hook. _Must be Keith’s,_ he thinks consciously, before he gives himself a full scale heart attack. He didn’t really expect to wake up like this, after all.

He feels the heated exhales go right into his hair, hot like steam, and figures it’s probably time to wake Keith up. He didn’t want his hair to catch on fire today.

“Keith, buddy, wake up.” Lance tries, patting the arm around him.

Behind him, Keith groans, a vibration that rumbles through both their bodies.

It made him a little uneasy, if he was honest. Usually Keith was his size, and Lance keeps conveniently forgetting that Keith is actually a big reptile with some anger issues and claws that could rip his pretty face up in one smooth motion. 

“Hey!” Lance says, and behind him, Keith shifts, still groaning. He doesn’t turn around to look, but he feels when Keith parts from him, and he almost misses that heat against his back, the cold open air from the cave doesn’t feel half as nice on his skin.

And okay, _nope, don’t linger on those thoughts, Lance. It’s time to get going._.

He sits up, and turns around just in time to see Keith stretch, half naked at that, with only his pants on. Lance averts his eyes, and gives him time to get himself together. Keith luckily didn’t seem to notice him ogling, still blinking sleep from his eyes and yawning as he picked his shirt up from the floor.

Lance doesn’t know how magic works. He doesn’t know how Keith can transform and be fully clothed, clothes disappearing like mist when he transforms back into a dragon and appear again. He almost want to ask, but really, he’s just thankful Keith was actually clothed and didn’t need replacements every day for shredded ones. He’s also thankful Keith wasn’t, like, pressed up against him naked.

Because that would be so _awful._

“SO!” Lance practically shouts, startling a few birds outside the cave into flight. “We have a big day today.”

Keith blinks at him, scratching scales around his ears.. “..Can’t we eat first?” And Lance would be lying if he didn’t swear Keith was _pouting_ just slightly. Keith was on a mission to kill him this morning, apparently.

“Do we have any trail mix left?” Lance asks, rummaging through his own bag to see. It was just like his mom to shove bunch of granola and dried fruit into bags for their journey in case their got hungry. It was such a mom thing to do, and although Keith thought it was sweet (and ate half the bag with glee) Lance was almost embarrassed. But at least Keith seemed happy at the time, and kept the teasing to a minimum.

“No, you ate it all, I think” Keith says from behind him.

“I did not, you liar.” Lance retorts, throwing a cold look over at his shoulder to a smirking Keith. “You were the one stuffing your face. I barely had a handful.”

“Whatever you say.” Keith says, and walks out of the cave. 

Lance rummages a bit more, packing their scattered belongings back into bags and putting more logs onto the fire, contemplating just what they’d be eating. He wasn’t exactly a hunter, and he probably was lucky his mom packed him snacks. But now they were out.

Lance is probably only busy for a couple minutes with the fire before Keith runs back in the cave, covered up to his wrists in blood with stray droplets across his cheek.

Horrified would be underestimating how Lance felt.

“Keith, what the hell did you do?!” He asks, standing abruptly, and looking Keith fully up and down, noticing the dead rabbit in hand. A bloody, dirty rabbit.

“I got breakfast,” Keith says, and yep, his teeth were covered in blood too.

It’s not even eight in the morning, and Lance is not ready to face the day.

~

When breakfast is over, they head out, walking along the mountain trail without much a destination in mind, other than to get out of the fog and find the place where shiro was being held captive. Keith still couldn’t smell Shiro, and considering they were on the island that pidge directed them towards, it was a little concerning. Lace worried, but he keeps silent and watched as Keith stressed himself over it, trying to pick up a scent as they climb higher.

“So, I’m curious about something.” Keith brings up as they walk along, the afternoon sun hot on their shoulders. “Your mom has familiars, right? What about you? Do you have one?”

“Suddenly curious about me, are we?” Lance grins, tugging at his cape. 

“It was just a question, you don’t have to answer. Or be an ass about it.” Keith grumbles.

Lance shrugs, although it’s not like Keith sees, as he was walking in front of him. “Mom has two kelpies, my little sister has an angelfish, and my older brother has a dove. Not all of the family members have them.” Or just mythological creatures, at that. He didn’t know how his mother had roped two kelpies into serving her, but whenever he asked, she had smiled and changed the subject. It always left him more curious in the end, so he stopped asking.

He was also kind of terrified of what the answer might be.

“And you?” Keith asks, dragging his mind back to the conversation.

“Nah,” He says. “Nothing yet. When the time comes though, I think it’d be cool to get a bunyip, or maybe a hydra!” He grinned. “I want something flashy.” 

A little intense, but a guy could have dreams. Come on.

“What do familiars even... _do_ for you?” Keith asks slowly. “I thought witches only kept like… black cats. I thought it was just a fancy idea of a pet.”

“Pfft, nah.” Lance waves a hand. “Some people would call them servants, but they’re mostly companions. They help out here and there ith training and spell casting, though. And in my mom’s case, they serve as transportation,too.”

“Hm,” Keith says, quiet. “Interesting.”

“What’s up, Keith?” Lance catches up to him, putting an elbow on his shoulder, and they both stop in their tracks. “Why you suddenly curious? Want to be my cool dragon familiar, or something?”

“What? No.” Keith says, not having an outburst, the thing Lance expected. 

“Just curious about me, then?” Lance pushes, honestly curious.

“...Maybe.” Keith says hesitantly, like he wants to say something else. He brushes Lance off his shoulder, and flaps his wings in minor annoyance as he treks on ahead. Lance sighs. Why couldn’t Keith just be nice for once? Or at least _make sense._

Keith wasn’t the ancient dragon Lance had thought he would be--they were the same age, instead of Keith being eight thousand years old--so no confusing language barriers to get past of the languages of old or the problem of Keith speaking in riddles. 

However, Keith had a _very_ pesky personality. He loved to avoid giving answers, and never shared his thoughts with another soul.

And that was just as difficult to understand sometimes.

They trudge on, but Lance is still confused as to why it got bought up in the first place.

Keith was hard to read. He’ll leave it at that.

~

A while passes in silence, trudging along the trails and Keith looking more and more confident as to where they were.

“This was the island you came to before, right?” Lance asks, when he sees Keith picks up the pace and seems much more into it, knowing where they’re going. 

“Yup,” Keith confirms. “ I can recognize some of the pathways. I can take us to where I had that fight before I flew off.”

It sounds eerie, but Lance has no choice but to go.

The world is too quiet around them here. It feels like they’re being watched.

As to distract himself, he rattles runes around in his palms again, tossing them in the air and watching them flip on his hands.

The runes land on symbols like _serpent_ or _hardship_ again and again, and Lance decides to put them back in his pocket, feeling even worse about the situation.

Getting so lost in thought, he missteps and trips on a root, hissing as his calf rubs sharply against a tall rock on his way in correcting his footing. It’s his bad leg (of course it is) so he watches as the blood bubbles up from the wound he left untreated the night before.

Keith stops in his tracks ahead of him, whipping around, eyes wide and glowing as he takes in Lance before sprinting his way, worry on his brow. 

“What happened?” Keith asks.

Lance stares at him. “I…. tripped?” Keith is glaring at the blood running down his leg like it killed his best friend, and Lance is unsure why he’s so concerned. He was like this yesterday too, he remembers. “It’s not a big deal. I’ll just treat it in a bit.”

“Treat it _now_ ” Keith says, and forcibly pushes him into a sitting position on the large rock that he cut himself against. Lance raises an eyebrow at Keith, who still looked bothered.

“It’s just a cut, Keith.” Lance says, already pulling out some bandaging from his bag. “Could be worse.”

“Don’t just wrap it up!” Keith hisses. “Use that--balmy stuff you put on my wing. It’s supposed to clean and heal cuts, right?”

Lance raises an eyebrow. “...Are you okay, Keith?”

“No.” Keith pouts. “I don’t want you to get an infection. You can die from those, right?”

Lance snorts. Keith glares at him sharply. 

“I mean, I guess so.” Lance says. “But usually it’d have to be something much more serious than this. Your wing is more likely to get infected than my siren cuts, which were already washed in the ocean. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“I have to worry. I’m protecting you.”

_Ok, hold the phone._

“Pretty sure I saved our asses yesterday, while you conked out.”

Keith rolls his eyes. “Yeah, you did. But that’s why I gotta keep you safe, okay?” keith steps in place, looking awkward. “You save me, I save you and all that, right?”

Lance blinks slowly at him, mouth agape. So Keith actually _was_ starting to understand that they were teammates, now. It brings a small smile to his face.

Keith still looks awkward as he groans out again. “So yeah. You got injured, and I don’t want you sick. Clean it, will you?”

“What a nag,” Lance sighs. “You’re worse than my grandmother.” _and you ruined the moment,_ he wants to add.

“Good.” Keith says, all smiles. “Someone needs to nag you.” He sits own on the forest floor until Lance is done patching himself up.

It was sweet, he had to admit--that Keith was so intent on keeping him healthy. He said it was because he was keeping them safe, but the look on his face throughout the conversation, the looks at the wound, eyes filled with worry--it spoke for itself.

Lance didn’t need anything like that though. A little cut--it didn’t matter. They had to save Shiro. Keith shouldn’t worry about things like this.

Lance doesn’t want to drag them down.

He packs up after a few minutes, and Keith looks relieved. “It’ll... be okay now?” He asks, voice curious like a small child. Lance grins.

“Just a cut, remember Keith? I’ll be okay. I’m not the one with a hole in my wing.”

“Or your shoulder,” Keith tacks on with a relaxed smile, and Lance groans.

“I said I was _sorry_ , okay?!”

~

“This is where I was the last time,” Keith says as they walk into an area with scorched bushes and ground, the smell of blood stale and wrapped up by nature’s presence--but Lance could feel it. The fight that went down here. Keith had made it sound so much smaller than it was.

They continue to walk through.

The clouds start pouring in the higher on the island they get, and the birds stop chirping. It makes Lance feel uncomfortable for obvious reasons, but hey, maybe it’s all in his head. He did watch too many horror movies recently.

He doesn't look where he’s going, eyes darting to all sides for signs of trouble, and he’d run straight into Keith, knocking his cheek against cold, hard, reptile wing. He grunts.

“Why’d you stop, Keith?” 

“I can sense Shiro from here,” Keith says softly, and Lance freezes behind him, all sense of annoyance from knocking his jaw around lost at those words. Keith turns to him, eyes glittering. “He’s close by.” And there’s a brief smile, before he’s darting off, much faster than Lance’s human legs can follow, up the trails, a new motivation in his climbing.

“Keith, wait for me!” Lance pants, clutching at his knees as he watches Keith jump over a small bouldery hill, one Lance can’t see past.

Lance was going to lose Keith at this rate.

He jumps up the bouldery slope and climbs his best, just as Keith had, but he’s less than graceful, and slips up a few times before he’s at the top of the boulders, looking around for Keith.

There’s a small clearing, and the fog lingers around them at this height, settling around the trees eerily and making Keith stand out in his field of vision like a sore thumb-- bright red and purple wings spanned out behind him as he stands still, back to Lance.

“Hey,” Lance says, striding up to him with laboured breath. “What’s the big deal--”

“Shh,” Keith hushes, eyes bright and wary as he looks around them.

Lance stays still for a moment before he’s feeling impatient. “I don’t see why I have to be silent. There’s nobody here, what are we--”

“Quiet!” Keith hisses again, and presses a palm to Lance’s mouth.

He’d lick it, but the situation isn’t calling for his dumb jokes right now.

“Thehws nohbudy heer,” Lance says around Keith’s palm, muffled and annoyed.

“There’s a house,” Keith points, and oh yeah, there is a little shabby brick house, covered in moss and short. Like a witches cottage, only creepier.

The little building takes his mind off their surroundings for a moment. It was so odd, and unusual.

Suddenly, there’s a laugh across from them, and a black cloaked figure pulls out of the fog like a shadow, and melts into a person in front of their eyes, voice echoing across the quiet trees.

“Who are you?!” Keith asks to the stranger, words throaty and deep, bristling across Lance’s skin, making him shiver.

“Haggar,” The woman(?) smiles without pause, easy and open, those shiny teeth the only thing visible from under that cloak. A grin like a cheshire cat. A snake. The runes he’d flipped earlier flash in his mind again as she speaks.

“This is my domain. You’re _trespassing_ , runt.”

Lance didn’t like this at all.

“Give Shiro back. I won’t leave until then.” Keith says confidently, teeth pointed and wings flashing around threateningly large behind him. Lance keeps a bit of distance.

“Shiro?” She questions, voice dripping with honey and false innocence, like she didn’t know why they were there. “Never heard his name before. You speak of the dragon, right?”

“What did you do to him?” Keith growls, lurching forward to charge, only to be held by Lance’s hand. Something didn’t feel right.

“Let go, Lance!” Keith shouts at him, wings flapping. The woman only smiled at the banter, standing in place. Lance couldn’t explain in words to Keith, but he knew something wasn’t right. This smelled of a trap, for sure.

“I think we should leave.” Lance says gravely, dread seeping into his body like ice. He had a gut feeling, he was only hoping he was wrong.

“What?” Keith shouts, ripping his hand away from Lance. “What are you talking about?”

“You should listen to your friend, Keith.” Haggar says, and they both freeze, staring at her in astonishment. 

“How do you know my name?” Keith asks.

The woman only laughs. “The dragon. He said much of you while we tortured him. He’s not here, anyway, since we knew you were coming. He’s gone now.”

_We._

And like that, more shadowed silhouettes pour in around them through the fog. Armoured, faceless soldiers. Large and at Haggar’s command, waiting around and trapping them in this circle.

Keith doesn’t seem too petrified of the soldiers. Not like Lance is, anyway. He carries on with his interrogation, in his own little world between him and Haggar. “What did you do to Shiro,” He asks, voice like shards of ice, and lacking any mercy. If Keith got his hands on Haggar a this point, Lance thinks he might not even have time to ask questions before Keith rips her head off.

“We didn’t kill him yet.” She grins. “That’s not up for me to decide, unfortunately. He will be, though. Soon.”

“Don’t you touch him!” Keith growls, the last of his patience gone as he pulls away from Lance, their last touch burning his hands as Keith pushed away, claws dragging against his palm. He charges at Haggar, initiating the fight, and leaving Lance behind to fend for himself.

“Keith!” Lance calls, as soldiers pour in around him, closing off his field of view. He groans in frustration.

He’s pretty much screwed. They aren’t even close to any water, but the fog in the air allows him a little leisure of pulling ice shards out of it, and he throws them at the soldiers, aiming for the throats that weren’t actually covered all that well.

They fell like stones, but before long another round of them are coming at him, and he doesn’t know how long he can pull this song and dance for before he runs out of options, or stops getting lucky with his hits.

He does his best, but he can only get brief sights of Keith battling with Haggar before another soldier is thrown onto him, and that pattern continues for another minute or so before the clearing is actually _cleared_ , other than the mass of bodies covering the floor below. He gets up on slightly higher ground, trying to get an angle on Haggar.

If only he could perform any spell while Keith has her distracted, they’d probably make it out alive.

So he does his best, while trying to avoid keith’s giant wingspan and fast movements as he races around Haggar. He thinks he’s in the clear, thinks he’s got a perfect shot, when he feels the burn around his arm like a sudden fire spreading, taking his breath from his lungs.

He doesn’t take the shot.

Not at Hagger, anyway. He turns just in time to see one last soldier with a gun pointed at him, and sends him falling with the shard in hand.

Lance loses his balance after that, and tumbles down the slope and into the mud, feeling drained as the blood drips like a faucet from his arm.

 _His_ blood.

Why on earth did the soldiers have guns? Weren’t they just the witches creations?

 _Unless they were a group of hunters instead,_ Lance’s mind supplies.

From the way he’d stumbled down the rocks, he’s leaning at a perfect angle to watch Keith and Haggar fight from the sidelines, even though it’s in a blur, blood in his ears, and all over his hands and arms.

There’s only a few highlights to what he watches.

They fight. Struggle.

Haggar meets Lance’s eyes. Laughs. Says something to Keith.

She disappears in a whirlwind of black smoke in front of his eyes, and he’s pretty sure he’s not hallucinating that part. Definitely a witch, then, but what about her ‘soldiers’? 

He’s lightheaded. And bleeding a lot. 

Oh, but when Keith turns to him.

He wishes he’d forget that look.

The one of recognition. Of _fear_ , before all of Keith’s anger disappears like a drowned flame and he’s running, _running_ to Lance, and saying too much for him to take in at the moment.

“Lance,” Keith gasps, holding him tightly so he can barely breathe. He was having trouble with that anyway, but Keith doesn’t need to know.

They’re on the ground, mud all over their legs, and definitely all over their clothes. More blood on his. He almost wants to complain about that, instead of the burning hole in his arm. His whole body is blaring with pain, and his mind is ringing, but he’s all too aware instead of drifting out of it, focusing on Keith, who seemed to be only clutching him tighter, face white and eyes fiery and scared. 

“Can you still hear me? Tell me how to stop the bleeding, Lance, I don’t know what to do. Please, Lance, I don’t--”

“I’m not dying, Keith.” He grinds out, clutching the bloody arm with white knuckles. _Just feels like it._ “It just hurts. A lot.”

He wishes he had stayed quiet about that part, because Keith’s posture absolutely droops. Eyes bordering on teary as he grits his teeth and holds Lance up, rubbing a hand across Lance’s cheek in a soothing motion. Lance is the one who was shot, but Keith looks like the one in pain.

He doesn’t really want to know what _he_ looks like right now, though. Probably worse for wear at least.

“Tell me what to do,” Keith says again, more desperate. “I’m not human. I don’t know how to treat you.”

Lance tries to sit up, telling his body to _stop it with the shaky legs,_ and clutches to Keith as they walk toward the abandoned house.

“Let’s get out of the rain first, yeah?”

“Okay,” Keith says in a rush, and before he knows it, Keith has broken that little cottages door, and he’s being sat down on the stony inside floor of the old building before he can blink.

~

It’s a lot bigger on the inside. Like, in the impossible kind of way, if not for magic.

There’s tables--the kinds for operating. Some hightech machines strapped to the walls side to side, all with little beepers and shiny buttons. Screens. Fluorescent lights. 

It was definitely not a little friendly cottage belonging to an old lady, that’s for sure. This was their _base_. Their disguised base. It was probably Haggar’s.

Keith takes a quick look around the room, scanning for any life before he comes back to Lance, who was still shaking in the doorway, leaning against the frame for support.Keith helps him to sit down, on the less than comfortable flood. He avoids those tables, for some reason.

“What now?” Keith asks, still sounding raw and scared. Lance cracks a grin.

“What are you smiling about?!” Keith hisses out.

“It’s just a cut, Keith,” He says, always an opportune for jokes.

Realization dawns in Keith’s eyes and the grip from his claws on Lance’s shoulder lightens, but he still looks angry as hell. “You were _shot_ , Lance. Much worse than a little cut!”

“Ah, So you admit the cut on my leg was irrelevant. The truth comes out.” He snorts.

“Lance, Please,” Keith almost whimpers, eyes begging for instruction as he holds Lances bag up. Lance gives in, and stops making jokes, if only to calm Keith down, who seemed right on the edge of it.

He’d never seen Keith _that_ angry, or this scared before.

He shrugs off his cloak and tells Keith what to do, clutching above the wound tightly enough to slow the bleeding while Keith got the ointment for cleansing, applying it with shaky hands before wrapping his arms just tightly enough to keep the blood at bay. By the end of it, Lance feels a heck of a lot less shaky, and he downs some pain medication as Keith puts supplies back in his bag, before leaning forward and pressing his forehead to Lance’s knees.

It certainly captures his attention.

“You okay, Keith?” He asks, placing a hand on his shaking back.

“No,” Keith says, raspy and deep, as he pulls his eyes up to Lance,which are tired, and tears still gathered in them. He looked even worse for wear than he did earlier, just tired, and sad. “They held Shiro here. Some of his scales are on the table.”

_Oh._

“Keith,” Lance breathes, scooting down to the floor with Keith, pulling him into a hug. He never even thought about how much Keith was taking on, all of a sudden. “I’m sorry about Shiro. We’ll find him.”

Keith nods into his shoulder, trying to take deep breaths. “I know, I just--” He exhales loudly, tightening his grip around Lance’s backside, but not too painful this time. “--It’s not just about him. I was so mad, Lance. I haven’t been that angered in so long, and I wasn’t being careful.

“I Should have listened to you when we were in the fight, and I didn’t and I’m _sorry_ , this was all my fault. And then Shiro is gone--which is also my fault, and I don’t have anything to go off from here--I couldn’t even protect you out there because I was so focused on finding answers that I didn’t stay by your side. You got hurt because of me.” He grimaces, curling inward around Lance. “I thought you died for a second. I thought that was the last I’d see of you, too.”

“Hey, hey, shh.” Lance coos, holding Keith close, who was quite frankly a big sniffly mess, soft hair out of place and skin blotched with smeared blood and dirt. His eyes were red rimmed and glossy, and he was still trembling. He’s definitely looked _better,_ but even now, Lance couldn’t honestly say he was ugly.

“I don’t want to lose you,” Keith admits, and Lance feels his heart rate pick up.

They’ve only known each other a couple of days, but this… he can’t deny he felt the same. Even after all this was over, he’d miss Keith terribly. He didn’t want to think about the fact that after they found Shiro, he’d be gone and on his way. He didn’t want to think about being alone at home again, wondering what the other was up to, knowing they’ll probably never cross paths again after this. He didn’t want to think about the fact that Keith felt like the friend he always needed around him.

He liked Keith a bit too much, so he can’t say he didn’t understand Keith’s fear here.

“Stop worrying, okay? We got through it. I got through it, you got through it, and Shiro will get through it, because we’re gonna find him before they can hurt him anymore, alright? You may not be able to track him for now--and I can’t either, but we’ll figure something out. There’s always a way, alright? We’re going to save him.”

Keith pulls back and searches his eyes, something soft coming over them.

“Okay” He says, heart really in it, and Lance feels like he’s on fire from the look Keith is giving him.

It’s not an emotion he can pin in time, and he watches as Keith dives in forward, nose to nose with him, eyes locked on his with something warm before he’s kissing Lance--actually kissing Lance!--warm lips sliding across his.

He’s frozen in shock for a moment, which is too long apparently, because Keith pulls back, brows a little woven in worry, eyes slowly widening.

“What’s wrong?”

“We just,” lance squeaks. “Kissed. We just _kissed._ ” They just kissed. Why did they Kiss?!

Keith blinks. “Isn’t that… okay?”

“No!” Lance practically shouts. “It’s definitely not on the spectrum of okay! Why’d--” He takes a breath. The shot wound in his arm is his last concern as of this moment. “Why’d you _kiss_ me?”

“Your mom did it too,” Keith squints. “I watched her give you forehead kisses before we left.”

Lance almost screams.

“Yeah! Forehead kisses. _Forehead_ being the key word!” he rubs a hand across his lips, and his face feels hot.

Keith starts looking mildly embarrassed too, Eyes drifting to the concrete floor and biting his lip. “Is that not how humans comfort? It felt like the right thing to do?” He frowns. “Sorry.”

_It felt like the right thing to do._

He was trying to _actually_ kill Lance, wasn’t he?

“You only do things like that when you’re close, Keith.” Lance groans.

“We’re close, aren’t we…?” Keith says, eyes still lost in the conversation.

“Like--” Lance huffs. “Close-close. As in lovers kind of thing, you know?"

Keiths eyes widen drastically, finally getting the message. “ _Oh._ ” 

And now the color floods to Keith’s cheeks, which really doesn’t help Lance feel better about the situation at all. Now they’re both just embarrassed messes, sitting on the ground while he bleeds out into the dry rags because his heart is beating too fast. Nice.

“Wait a minute.” Lance says, holding a palm up. “Shouldn’t you know what kissing signifies? Didn’t you see your parents do it?”

Keith frowns. “I barely _remember_ them, and still, dragons don’t really… do… that.” He blushes more, looking away from Lance as he answers. “For us it’s more like…” He gestures vaguely with his hands. “Nudges, and scent marking by rubbing. We barely use our mouths, and it’s more like snouts touching if anything at all...” he says, face practically on fire as he silently looked away.

“Why do you look so embarrassed, Keith,” Lance groans yet again, hiding his face with the arm that isn’t injured.

“Because this is embarrassing!” He practically shouts. “Why didn’t you explain this to me earlier before I did any of that?!”

“Because it’s common knowledge!” Lance insists back. “I don’t know!”

“Ugh,” Keith groans, and hides his face in his hands. “I won’t do it again.”

“Good,”

“Great.”

“Fine.”

They both got quiet after that, a few feet apart, letting the embarrassment wear off. It took a few minutes of silence before either were willing to speak again, but lance ends up being the one to break it, curiosity getting the best of him once again.

“Keith?”

“Yeah?"

“What did you mean When you said Shiro being gone was… your fault?” He asks, swallowing. “You said it before, too.”

He knows this might be a bad idea. He says it with hesitance because he isn’t sure how Keith will react, but he stares at him, watching for motion in Keith. But he only blinks a few times, and sighs, shoulders drooping.

“I… I don’t know.” Keith says, frowning. “I mean, we had a fight, but it was a few days before he left. I thought we were fine but…” he grits his teeth. “I didn’t really fix it, and then he…”

The room falls silent again, and Keith sighs heavily. “It was stupid.”

So Keith was going to tell him, then.

“Shiro’s really important to me, okay?” He starts with, pulling his legs up close to himself across from Lance, staring at the floor as he spoke. “Even if it i’m not related to him by blood, he’s one of the most important things in my life. He saved me when I didn’t know how to come back to myself, and we were there for each other. All the time. I was so used to having him around, I guess I got jealous when he started to drift off, began to spend his days with someone else.” He smiles bitterly, shaking his head and snorting.

Lance keeps a close eye on him, not saying a word.

“Remember this?” Keith says, pulling the strand of pearls out of his pocket to show Lance.

“Shiro’s bracelet?”

“I told you it was from someone, right?” Lance nods. Keith’s smile is still grim, looking at the thing with unreadable eyes as it twirled in his fingers. 

“Shiro and me went everywhere together, before her. I wondered why he got distant with me, but one day he didn’t even come home. I got upset, and went out to find him, thinking something bad happened, but no luck. I spent most of the morning searching for him that night, and returned in the morning, only to see him happily at home.

“I got mad, and asked where he’d been. He figured it was time he told me about what he’d been doing, and who he’d been seeing when he disappeared.

“Some girl, I guess. He wanted to introduce us, because he’d fallen in love with her.” He shrugs. “It was kind of a shock to me, because we never kept secrets before, but I overreacted. I yelled at him, and took off. I didn’t come home.”

Keith frowns, hands tightening around his legs. “I wasn’t there for him. I got mad, ignored everything he said because I was jealous he’d rather spend time with some girl than me, and it was stupid. I didn’t even listen to what he was saying, I just stormed out. He just wanted me to meet her, and I left him alone.” Keith says sounding hurt. “I was just being an asshole like usual, and if I didn't storm off when I did, Shiro wouldn't have gone looking for me and been taken away.”

Lance scoots up by Keiths side in an instant, seeing him fight with himself from the way his face warped up, and puts a soothing hand on his back.

“Hey, hey, that’s not your fault, Keith.”

“Yes it is. How would you know? You weren’t there.” Keith groans.

“Ok, true,” Lance ignores Keith’s eye roll. “But you had a right to be mad, didn’t you?” he shrugs. “I mean, you were scared.”

“I wasn’t scared,” Keith grumbles.

“You were. And it sucked that he was just doing something like hanging out with a girl when you were worried, right? Not to mention, I’d be pretty bummed if someone close to me suddenly stopped being around suddenly.”

“But Shiro was probably mad with me, in the end there. I was irrational. I never yell at him like that.” Keith replies. “It’s probably the only reason he came after me at all, and then he disappeared.”

Lance blinks, slowly. “Keith, I don’t know Shiro at all.” He sighs. “But do you _really_ think he chased you down to get _mad_ at you? He was probably worried about you.”

“...Maybe,” Keith pouts. “It’s still my fault.” 

Lance bumps him with his shoulder. “I don’t think it is, but why don’t we find Shiro first, and then you can fix things with him? There’s no use worrying about it when he’s not even here right now.”

Keith flinches, but nods. “You’re probably right.”

“I’m _always_ right. Always.”

“Yeah, whatever.” He rolls his eyes, and suddenly looks at Lance again. “Thank you, Lance… And I’m--” Keith shies away, slitted eyes finding something interesting on the floor. “--I’m glad you’re okay. I’m glad you’re here with me through this.”

Lance blinks. “Getting sappy on me now, Keith?”

“Oh, would you just-- nevermind! I didn’t say anything, I can’t believe you--”

Keith gets up to try and walk away, but Lance is faster, and grabs him around the wrist, tugging lightly until Keith looks down at him again.

“I’m kidding, Keith.” He smiles. “I’m glad I’m here with you too.”

Keith smiles the tiniest bit, and Lance’s heart flutters. _What the hell._

“We should get a move on,” Keith says, changing the subject. “The rain is letting up.”

Lance stands up, groaning as his arm rubs weakly against the wall as he stands, sending a rush of heat and pain throbbing through his chest.

But he doesn’t even fall back down, because Keith is suddenly right there, holding his good arm up and putting it around his shoulder, eyebrows drawn with worry as he stares at Lance, eyes darting everywhere for signs of blood and seeing if he was okay. A new rush of embarrassed warmth floods to Lance’s face.

“Forgot about my arm,” He groans. “What are we supposed to do?"

Keith has a pondering look, eyes narrowed in curiously on the wound before he loops an arm around Lance’s waist for added support. 

What could they do? They couldn’t just rush out into the rain and hope they’d find their way. _They had no leads, anymore_. 

Keith looks like he’s beginning to understand that too.

“New plan. We’re gonna camp here for tonight, and we’ll figure out what our next move is when the fog and rain is gone.”

“No, Keith, we gotta stop camping out, it’s wasting time, and we gotta go--” he groans out, choked from pain, and it’s not only from the hole in his arm. He suddenly feels that heart sinking rock in his gut again. He’s being a burden.

Keith seems to sense these thoughts, and holds him tight, maybe so he doesn't sink through the floor.

“We could be going out at least, walking around in search--”

“That’s a terrible idea, Lance,” Keith snorts. 

“Keith, I really don’t think--”

“You being healthy is important to me too, Lance. We don’t have anywhere to go at the moment, so we’re gonna sit tight, okay?” Keith looks almost _angry_ , just daring Lance to disagree. “I promised your mom I’d keep you safe, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. We’re in this _together_ , okay? You and me. So we’re gonna do it right. We can’t run around like chickens with our heads cut off and magically find him.”

He didn’t think he’d get this lecture from _Keith,_ of all people.

Lance gulps. “Okay.”

“Good. Now get comfy, because I’m gonna make the best damn bed you’ve ever seen. And if you move from that spot, you’re in for it.” He says, toothy grin back, and then he’s rummaging through their stuff again, and wandering outside and looking around the room to collect anything useful.

It’s probably the angriest way someone’s ever told him to relax, but it’s Keith, and he doesn’t know what he expected otherwise. So he does what he’s told, and sinks by the bones into the cold cement walls, breathing and trying to keep his mind off the wound, and other things.

When Keith comes back and starts setting up a fire, Lance decides it’s a great time to talk again. Fill the awkward atmosphere.

“I know we stopped talking about it, but I have one question.” Lance asks, watching with awe as Keith exhales fire all over the somehow _dry_ firewood.

“Shoot,” Keith coughs smoke, looking at him. 

“The girl he wanted you to meet,” Lance squints. “Did you check with her? Maybe she knew something.”

“Like, you mean a spy for the hunters, or along those lines?”

“No, no.” Lance shakes his head. “Like, maybe Shiro reached out to her before he went missing. Maybe she knows more on what happened. Or anything Shiro said about you. Maybe she’s even looking for you.”

Keith shrugs. “I doubt it. I looked for her, but I think the hunters may have taken her too.”

“So you caught her name, then?” Lance asks. “What was it? Maybe I know her.” He laughs. “I knew plenty of ladies from all around who visited my mother for magical assistance.”

Keith snort, shaking his head. “I highly doubt it.” rummaging the firewood around with his scaly and grit covered hand, and Lance watches in awe. How was he not getting burned?

“Allura.”

“What?” Lance feels like he was just slapped across the face, sitting up a little straighter at the name.

“Her name is Allura. I don’t know if she was a magical creature though, because Shiro didn’t smell like anything different after being around her. Even if she was magical, I think they might have both been taken. It was a dead end.”

Lance shakes his head after a long moment. “No, she’s probably fine.”

“And how would you know _that_?” Keith snorts, eyes still on the fire.

“Because I talked to her a few days ago. Before I met you.”

Keith snorts. “You--” his eyes dart up at Lance with impossible speed, wide and alarmed. “ **Wait, what?** ”

Lance grins. “Keith, I’ve known Allura since we were five years old.” he feels a larger grin come on at Keith’s jaw dropping, sparks bouncing off his jaw and still not snapping him from his stupor. 

“She wasn’t taken, Keith.” Lance laughs. “The reason You couldn’t smell or find her because she doesn’t even live on the surface.” He grins wider, at the insanity of it all. “You couldn’t locate her because she’s a _mermaid_ , dude.”

“A-as in…?”

Lance grins, new plan in mind. “Tomorrow, I can summon her, and you can ask your questions. Then we can know where to go next, and how to find Shiro.”

Keith smiles, just a little, and huffs out a little laugh. “I can’t believe this. I can’t believe _you_.”

Lance smiles. They might just be able to pull this off yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> are we rlly that surpised im writing about mermaids again lbr
> 
> ALSO; sorry for how long this took, i had major writing block and i was at 2k words for like, the longest time. This update turned out actually pretty decent sized though, so I'm pretty happy with it!  
> Please tell me your thoughts on it!!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM GONNA SAY SORRy, FIRST OF ALL  
> SORRY THAT THIS WAIT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE 3 WEEKS TOPS AND ENDED UP BEING LIKE, 3 MONTHS  
> THIS CHAPTER ISNT EVEN THAT LONG I FEEL AWFUL BUT THIS IS THE SECOND LAST CHAPTER AND I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY IT
> 
> ALSO IM STILL SCREAMING OVER S2 AND ITS BEEN LIKE, 2 WEEKS

When Lance wakes up, Keith his curled around him once again, reptilian arm draped around his waist. Which is a little weird, because he could have swore Keith had slept across from him. Like--a good five feet away and with a fire pit between them. 

But instead of feeling alarmed again with that carnivorous set of jaws right behind his head, breath hot like fire warming his spine, he kind of sinks into the feeling. Enjoys what he can while Keith is still asleep behind him. He certainly couldn’t get this close to Keith when he was _awake_ after all. And feeling those warm breaths against the back of his neck was actually pretty nice.

If he was being totally honest with himself--he didn’t mind this. Like, _at all._ He kind of wondered if he could sleep the same way in his own bed after this, the cool summer night air breathing like ice across his back every time he slept. The weight not evened out on the bed behind him with the force of another body. 

He’d miss this.

And on that note, he rolls over, and shakes Keith awake by the scaly shoulders until he transforms back into his human self, trying his best to ignore the pleasant feelings he gets when he watches Keith yawn and come back to wakefulness, eyes droopy and cheeks pink as he scratches at his neck. It felt _domestic_ almost.

But they still had important things to do, and he could worry about his feelings later.

“Ready to speak with Allura?” Lance grins, and Keith’s eyes settle on his in full lucidity, bright and enamored with gold flecks lining his iris that Lance had never noticed before. His voice was still gravelly with sleep, but he seemed excited.

“Let’s do it.”

~

“It’s been a half an hour at _least,_ Lance.”

“Can you be a little nicer?” Lance groans, moving the water through the air into an arc, and lying it back into the ocean with a graceless drop, to turn to Keith and glare. “I’m trying my best. My arm is still broken, you know. It’ll take me a little while to get this right. Give the injured man some time, will ya?”

“It’s not _broken_ you dweeb,” Keith huffs, rolling his eyes all the way around before continuing. “And if you want to compare battle scars, let’s just take a _glimpse_ at my shoulder and see which one looks worse.”

“I thought you dropped this already,” Lance whines, and swirls water in the air again, a thin ribbon of aqua twirling around in the air in spirals, captivating Keith enough to shut him up for a moment.

Lance continues on, pulling the water up and tossing it back into the ocean. Over and over again.

“What _are_ you actually doing?” Keith asks, squinting at him. 

“Glad you asked! I’m calling her, obviously.” Lance says, not even turning to Keith. It probably wasn’t obvious to someone who hadn’t seen a summoning like this, but he knew what he was doing. “I’m relaying messages through the water vibrations, and _if_ she’s close enough, she’ll catch on and come this way.”

Keith’s eyes widen. “Weird,” he says, sounding awed, and looks around them, at the waves bouncing off each other in the calm waters. “So it’s like morse code, then?” he asks, looking to Lance for confirmation.

“Um,” Lance says smartly. “Not exactly? Mostly like reading the ripples in the water. But I guess you could compare it to something like that.” He hums, eyes closed, and continuing the water twirling stuff. At least Keith had an idea of what he was doing, now. Without looking, he knew Keith watched with slightly awed eyes from the sidelines, and probably threw in a few extra loops of water, just to amuse Keith. He was kind of a show off, okay? But if Keith liked it, there was no problem.

“Ah,” Lance says after a few more minutes of working in silence, the water he was lifting through the air dropping back into the sea with a splash as he turned to Keith, smile wide. It’s hard to explain, but he knows the sign to look for. A slight tremor sent back. The waves changing course by a fraction. The tide pulling at his legs just a little more harshly than usual. Maybe he’s just acutely aware at this point, but he knows she’s responding through her own waves, however small.

“She’s near,” Lance says, without explaining, and runs deeper into the water.

“Lance, what are you--” Keith shouts, and instead of finishing his sentence, just chases after him. 

Lance watches as Keith trips into the water at thigh depth with him, looking as uncomfortable as ever and eyeing the water like a hawk, seemingly unsure. His eyes dart at any ripple like it might be out to attack him, irises swirling and catching on movement like he was hunting. It probably _was_ how Keith looked when he hunted, only less terrified. 

Lance reaches a hand out to him, and Keith looks at it, raising a brow.

“After all this time, you still don’t trust me?” Lance accuses with a snort, and grips Keith’s wrist before he can pull back, tugging him into the deep with him. Keith makes a bit of a warbly noise, and sends a glare his way before tugging his hand back, just enough to show annoyance but not enough to pull out of Lance’s grip all together. He huddles closer to Lance instead, eyes shifting again to the dark waters around them.

Feeling the warmth of Keith pressed up against his side, his thoughts travel. Back to this morning, huddling together in a sleepy cuddle. Back to yesterday, when they kissed.

The heat on his face reaches his ears, he’s sure, and he keeps his face looking downward into the deep, while Keith till clung to him. He’s glad Keith was more preoccupied with the fear of a mermaid sneaking up on them rather than paying attention to Lance. 

Suddenly, he feels a strong wave buckle at his shins, that of something _much_ bigger than a bluefish, or a pike. Too close to the shore to be a shark, anyway.

Weirdly enough, Keith still doesn’t seem to notice. Maybe he couldn’t read the waves in patterns like Lance could.

There’s a flash of white from just below the surface in the corner of his eye, thin wisps like jellyfish tentacles or something. Reflective scales catch his eye, and then metallic blue claws. And then there’s a face peeking out of the water and reflective blue and purple eyes looking at them both, framed by dark skin and pink marks just under.

Allura looks a little panicked, quite honestly, when she frantically asks, “Why are you off the island, Lance? Did something happen with your family?” Her voice is crystal clear and charming as a ringing bell, like always.

Keith reflexively rolls backward, away from the girl, and almost pulls Lance right with him right to the shore with the strength of his body. He didn’t even get a chance to reply to Allura yet, before Keith is pulling away, away, away, like him and Allura were opposing magnets repelling each other.

“ _Whoa,_ Keith! Calm down, okay?!” He shrieks, pulling Keith’s lone arm with both of his, flinching when using his still wounded one. Keith seems to sense this, or possible hear the little sound of pain Lance makes, and halts in his tracks. His eyes are still wide and focused on Allura, and he doesn’t reel back into Lance’s side. He stays just where he is. Guarded, and holding tightly onto Lance’s hand--for his own support or Lance’s, he’s not sure.

She looks a little shocked, as if she just noticed him for the first time. Or rather, she looks behind Keith’s shoulders, and glimpses those unfurling scaly wings, Which definitely cancel out Keith as a regular human friend. Her eyes seem to lock onto them, the shock pooling across her features and her jaw falls right open as she stares at Keith, who looked pretty uncomfortable at this point.

“...You said your name was Keith?” She asks, hesitant.

Keith barely moves at his side, but his stature loosens, as he looks at Allura closer, probably analyzing the girl his brother had gotten together with for the first time. 

Speaking of which.

“Hey, Allura, in all the stories of travel you mentioned to me, you didn’t think it’d be nice to say--” Lance cuts in, clearing his throat, and pulling off his best british impression as he mocks, “‘Oh hello there, Lance, by the way, you should stop hitting on me, I have this huge dragon boyfriend that’ll return soon’ at all?”

He feels Keith’s gaze on him, and doesn’t know what to make of it.

Allura flushes, eyebrows drawing together angrily. “That was _none_ of your business! Besides, you stopped hitting on me _years_ ago, you dimwit. And I wanted to mention him. Shiro. I wanted you to _meet_ him, too. But then…” She bites her lip, eyes sliding to Keith. “...He disappeared. And I didn’t want to say anything, because you didn’t know, and I thought it would be strange to bring up. I thought I could find him myself, but… It didn’t go as planned.”  
She looks closer to Keith, tail fanning lightly across the water's surface as she pushes herself toward Keith, unafraid. 

Keith doesn’t move a muscle, only stares. “You are _Shiro’s_ Keith, yes? His younger brother?”

Keith blinks slowly, before nodding jerkily. “Sort of. But yeah.”

Her shoulders slump. “I wish we could have met under better circumstances. Have you heard from him at all? Any sign he’s okay?” she asks, almost pleading.

Keith frowns, eyes falling half-closed. “No. We were sort of here to ask you about that, actually…” his eyes dart up to Lance. “ He said you might be able to help us.”

Allura looks to Lance again, white eyelashes wet and clinging to her skin, eyes hopeful.

“You need my help? Do you know how to find Shiro?”

“Don’t act so surprised princess, yeesh.” Lance rolls his eyes. “You don’t give me nearly enough credit for anything. I have plenty of good ideas.”

“Some of them are good.” She squints. “But you don’t even know what he looks like, how could you know where he is?!” Allura asks.

Lance shrugs. “I don’t. This is sort of my backup plan, since I thought you would know something about his whereabouts, but I have something like a plan.” 

Her eyes dart, searching his. “Spit it out, then. What do you need?”

“A divination mirror.”

Keith and Allura both look at him, silent for a moment.

“You need a divination mirror for _this?_ Don’t you have one already?”

“I do,” Lance starts. “But I thought one from your collection would be better. Mine is fairly new, and I’ve never really used it? The older, the better when it comes to scrying. Plan B is the best I’ve got at the moment, unfortunately.”

Allura squints. “Divination is fickle and misleading, even if you use one you can work with better. The future is blurry at best even through the clearest of mirrors, Lance.”

“I know.” Lance slumps. “But we’re running out of time, and if I can predict anything relating to him, I’ll take it.” 

Allura maintains eye contact with him, clearly thinking it through before she agrees.   
“Fine. I’ll get you a mirror. Stay here.” she nods.

“If you have something of Shiro’s, I’d like to borrow that too.”

She glares sharply at him.

He rolls his eyes. “ _Borrow._ ” He makes clear, and she nods just once, diving under. He forgot that mermaids were almost worse hoarders than dragons.

White noise and ripples fill the air. Keith releases tension at his side, sighing.

“She didn’t know anything.” Keith says, almost sadly. “We could be wasting our time. She hasn’t heard a thing from him, either. Or seen anything suspicious regarding his whereabouts.” His wings fall just slightly, and it hurts Lance’s heart.

“But That’s why I’m gonna borrow her mirror, okay?” Lance reassures, placing a hand on Keith’s uninjured shoulder.

“But she said reading the future was fickle. _You_ said the viewing the future was hard before, even if you’re good at it. What if you can’t get a reading on time? What if you can’t get one at all?” Keith asks, voice raising by every word. 

Lance looks him over once before smiling faintly. “Trust me, okay? We’re going to find him.”

Keith searches his eyes, and nods. Grasps Lance’s hand. 

Lance doesn’t let go until Allura returns.

~

“I want that back when you’re done.” Allura says, breaking the silence as Lance finished setting up the mirror to how he needed it.

“Trust me, I have _no_ intention of keeping this rusty hairclip” Lance hums, taking the jewel covered comb piece to put in front of him. The mirror lies in front of him on the sand, round and pretty regular looking, staring up at the sky. Allura swishes her tail impatiently in the tide pool, leaning on rocks to get closer. Keith isn’t too far off either, on his toes with his wings out for balance as he watches Lance curiously. Their eyes burn at his skin.

Lance sighs. “This is going to take longer if you guys distract me.”

But Keith just blinks at him, and doesn't move a muscle. Allura is the same, watching from her spot on the rocks with Shiny eyes.

Of course they were curious as to what a scrying looked like. 

But it’s not like it was honestly that interesting. Lance just had to focus--which wasn’t what he was best at, and was probably why scrying always came to him with a bit more difficulty. You needed a cleared mind. And it very was hard to stare into the depths of a mirror until you didn’t see yourself anymore--eyes unleaving the same spot until you push past the imagery of your own reflection and search past it.

It was a grueling process (and even longer with their eyes on him) but eventually his sight swerves, and the edges of his face blur on his own reflection, until he’s staring down at trees instead of his own face.

Trees?

Trees.

Suddenly a mountaintop covered in them, and then something like a crater in the middle, maybe caused by a shooting star or an asteroid from millions of years prior. It was like a deep hole in the center of the mountain. It was a very green, layered in moss and vines and flowers. And very deep from the looks of it, the bottom of the large crevice filled with lakewater….Seawater? And a mass of land in the center of it, walls built high around the structures, and appearing almost like a castle. It looked old.

It’s the clearest image he gets, but not the only one.

The next is looking down at purple flowers in his hands. Then it’s cage bars in front of his eyes as he lies on the ground. He’s cold. It’s just an image, but he feels like he’s living this--Shackles clanking loudly somewhere behind him, and a hovering shadow just outside his place of confinement. Then in the next flash, he’s drowning, watching as a shape comes for him from above. Then it’s wings. Dragon wings.

Darkness fills his sight next, the only lamp being bright eyes much alike a cats’, directly in front of his face. Slitted and glowing. _Just like Keith’s._ And total darkness fills his vision once again.

And then the visions are over. He frowns, looks up at Keith over the mirror on the ground.

“did you see something?” Keith asks.

“Not too sure what I saw.” He admits honestly, biting at his lip. He knows not all of the visions were through his own eyes. Some of them were through other people. He can feel it---he can’t put it into words but he had a gut feeling. All the images didn’t make sense, but he did recognize one thing. 

“There was something I saw that I knew,” He starts. “I don’t think it was a place anywhere near here though.”

“So is it where we’re supposed to head?” Keith asks.

“Couldn’t tell ya.” Lance replies, honest. He rubs at his eyes, which blur just around the edges in a small fit of dizziness. He remembers now why he hates scrying so much. It takes a while to get back into his own head- and even then, the visions haunt him without his wishes. 

With scrying, it’s like you’re watching a movie unfold in front of your eyes, except the images burn into your your mind. After the session is over, the feelings from the visions crawl along your skin, and you can still feel the sensations you did from what you saw. It was sort of like that feeling after waking up from a bad dream, cold sweat just barely on your skin, and your mind trying to process what you saw and felt wasn’t _actually real._ He still feels those eyes on him. The glowing ones. They were nothing like Keith’s, but he thinks they were a dragons. He didn’t like it at all.

“But,” Lance says, clearing his throat and looking up at Keith, escaping his thoughts. “I know we should definitely start there. I’ve got a good feeling. It’s called Balmera.”

“”You said you knew what you were doing,” Keith grumbles, and Lance tenses up.

He pauses, before looking up, eyes narrowed. “I do know what I’m doing.” he ends up mumbling, in small defense of himself. His cheeks almost feel hot. “You said you trusted me.” he adds, maybe a little sadly.

Allura chooses this time to cut in. 

“Lance is great at scrying,” she says confidently, eyes sharp on Keith, who looks a little affronted, but keeps their eyes locked all the same. “He’s the best sea witch i’ve ever met, besides his mother and father. It’s the best lead we’ve got right now, and I’d say to go for it.” Her eyes, offense gone, move to Lance with a bit of concern and softness. “The bigger question is, are you _okay_?”

“I’m fine,” Lance says on instinct, coughing out a laugh. ”And thanks.” _For supporting me, and believing in me_ goes unsaid between them. Keith may not clue into his meaning as easily, staring between both of them, but Allura’s eyes take on a sad stare--the concerned mother-like one that he’d rather not see. “I mean it. I’m all good.” He says.

“If you say so.” Allura sighs, and reaches out to grab her hair pin and the edge of the mirror, pulling them toward herself. “Do you need an escort?” She asks. “The balmera is quite a ways away…”

“Sure thing” Lance snorts, standing up and dusting his pants off. “You can catch up with Keith while we go. For getting there, though, We have my mother’s kelpie at our beck and call.”

Keith tenses at his side, and Lance holds back a laugh. 

Even if he laughs it off, he still feels bad that this is the best he can offer to the both of them. Allura’s words of support were appreciated, but Keith was just speaking what he was feeling. He really hoped he wouldn’t let either of them down. 

They’ve come so far, after all.

~

The trip to the balmera is interesting, to say the least. It’s filled with chatter between Allura and a reluctant Keith, as she shares stories about how she met Shiro.

Apparently she’d gotten tangled up in a hunter’s trap, beaching herself to the shore to remove the snagging claw like thing from her tail--when shiro came by and helped her remove the thing. Allura was scared of a big, hulking dragon approaching her at first, but sighed as she said how much he acted like a giant teddy bear. A big, flustered teddy bear. In her words.

Lance didn’t know Shiro himself, but he sounded like a decent guy, doing something like that. He doesn’t know if he’d expect help from a dragon if it descended from the sky toward him, but Allura presumably didn’t either. Lance is still in shock out of all her adventure stories thus far, she didn’t mention getting helped out by a dragon. Or getting caught in that trap.

Speaking of which, he does remember Allura coming by for a waterproof antibiotic balm before, and getting a tail wrap from his mother to cover the injury. That was a month and some time ago, now.

“And then he kept coming back after that day.” Allura laughed, light-hearted. “Said he wanted to check up on me and see if I was alright, but well, he kept making visits long time past my recovery.”

The turning point in the light hearted conversation is when Allura sighs and says to Keith, “Shiro wanted us to meet. He mentioned that he’d bring you to meet me, and then I never saw him after that. I thought it might have been something like this-- a fight between you two-- since he told me how you are with new people….but then he didn’t return in much too long, and I knew something had gone wrong otherwise.”

A silence comes over the three of them, waves being the only sounds. 

“He was much happier for a long time before he disappeared, and I had no idea why until the last day I saw him.” Keith mentions at last. Keith frowns, clutching tighter on the kelpie’s mane. “I wish I hadn’t reacted the way I did. If I didn’t blow up on him, he might still be safe.”

Allura swims on her back, eyes stuck on Keith. She frowns sympathetically at him. “Keith. He wasn’t mad at you. He talked plenty about you, and you’re the most important person in his life. You know that, right?”

Keith looks down, away from her eyes. “I got upset because I felt he was leaving me. If I didn’t act like a child, he’d still be here now. That’s all there is to it.”

Allura frowns at him, lips pulling into a pout, but she places a hand on his. He stares at it for a moment, before pulling the kelpie’s mane, enticing it to swim faster. 

 

Lance gets so caught up in their conversation, and feeling worry for Keith, that he forgets to look forward, where the Balmera islands lie just in the distance. He blinks a few times, making sure they really made it in such quick time. A grin spreads across his lips.

“Guys, we’re almost at the islands.”

And just like that, both allura and Keith snap their faces forward, looking to where Lance points. 

“Let’s go get Shiro back,” Keith says, closing the tense atmosphere with his statement. Allura dives at their sides, swimming ahead.

The kelpies pick up the pace.

~

Just as the sun begins to set, they breach the shores of the ring shaped balmera island from the one in Lance’s vision.

“This is it.” Lance says, levitating the water off of their clothes, mostly for Keith’s sake. He looked more comfortable by the second. “It’s time to go sneak in. We got a plan?”

Keith frowns. Grabs his dagger and holds it outward. “I could go straight for the centre-- we could take them by surprise and find Shiro fast enough if you searched for him while I fight.”

Lance sighs. “That’s an awful idea, Keith, come on. It’ll be a surprise anyway, but you’re hurt, and _so am I,_ so let’s try to keep the rushing in to a minimum. I don’t even know what Shiro looks like, anyway.”

Keith looks a little disappointed for a moment before nodding, agreeing with him that it was probably for the best. “But we should stick together, whatever we do. This could get dangerous pretty fast if we get separated in the midst of fight.” Keith says, and his point becomes clear when he glances down to Lance’s arm, wrapped tight. 

“Actually,” Lance says. “I was going to say the opposite. You stay on guard from a safe spot and I’ll try to blend in--see if I can find my way around the cages.”

“No way!” Keith says abruptly. Then his anger falter to confusion. “And what do you mean, cages?”

Lance gives him a look. “I think there’s cages. I saw an image in my vision, and I have a feeling it was from Shiro’s perspective. It didn’t feel like… myself. That’s for sure anyway.” He shakes that cold feeling off once again. “You can’t come with me if I go for it, though. Your wings will attract attention in a place like this, and give you away. I can at least blend in by my magic.”

Keith tenses up, and gets closer to Lance, looking angered. “Not happening,” He hisses, and grabs Lance’s wrist. 

Lance looks down at the tightening grip on his arm, the protective anger glowing in Keith’s eyes, and pats the hand. Keith simmers down, blinking a few times, and frowns at him instead of getting angry. “I don’t like this. At all.”

“Neither do I.” Allura pipes in from the water’s edge, and they both look to her. “But I can’t go further from here. If I transformed, I could, but that’d take too long.” She frowns. “I can only wait for you two to return. I can’t climb this mountain with you. I’m sorry.”

Lance grins at her. “Thanks, ‘llura, but I think we got it handled. You’ve been plenty of help already, and it was thanks to your old mirror and things of Shiro’s that I got a clear enough reading anyway.” He clears his throat. “But you uh, probably should stay here. For when we come out with Shiro.” He doesn’t look at Keith. “We don’t know what the situation will be, when we have him. We might need backup coverage from the water, and if you can rally some deep sea terrors to back us up, that’d be cool.”

Allura nods. “I’ll stay on the perimeters of the island, then. I’ll wait for you here until you come back.”

“Great!” Lance says, turning to Keith. “Now--we should probably get a move on. By the time we get to the top of the mountain, it’ll be nightfall. And we want to get in there when it’s still dark out, for extra cover.”

Keith nods. “Got it. Let’s go.”

“Wait!”

They’ve only just turned their backs on Allura when she calls them back, and they both look down to her, looking back and forth before deciding on her next words at them both.

“Lance, may I have a word with Keith please? Alone, if that’s fine.”

Lance throws his hands up in defense. “Enough said, princess. I’ll trudge onward and find the best path.” He probably didn’t want to be around them for this, anyway. He felt like he was intruding enough throughout the time’s they were talking about Shiro, and he’d rather not third wheel it in the meantime.

As promised, Keith showed up a few moments later, and he hears the tell-tale splash through the forest, meaning Allura left the premises. Keith smiles lightly at him. It was a refreshing sight, and he swore he wouldn’t have seen Keith like that until _after_ they rescued Shiro.

“What’s got you smiling?” Lance asks as they walk up the slope, a grin of his own forming. And maybe a bit of heated blush on the tips of his ears. “Did Allura give you a kiss to give to Shiro, or something?” and if she did, he’s not going to lie, he’d be a little jealous. Keith did not get a kiss from his childhood friend _before_ him!

“What? No!” Keith scrambled, smile disappearing. But the mood wasn’t ruined, and Keith shakes his head. “Nothin’” He says, elaborating a slow moment later, scratching at his neck with sharp claws. “She just told me that he spoke only well of me--before this. He said he was proud of me. I know I messed up, but it just felt nice to hear it. I hope he can forgive me, after this.”

“Is that _that_ surprising to you?”

Keith looks at him. “No I… guess it isn’t. I just hope he still will be. After all this is done with.”

Lance smiles. “He will be. He’ll be so happy to see you.”

Keith grins at that, and wow, Lance was not prepared for all of his facial expressions today, apparently. 

“It’s thanks to you, Lance.” Keith says, scratching his neck and looking away, pink coloring his cheeks. “I would still be chasing my tail and injured if it weren’t for you. I’m sorry for giving you such a hard time up until now.” He grins meekly. “This is all thanks to you.”

Lance knows it’s a fragile moment, but he feels this pit in his chest, even now. “So... you do trust me still, right? I know earlier, you weren’t sure about the scrying, and it still might not work, yknow? But I just want to make sure-”

“I’m sorry.” Keith cuts in. “for saying that to you. I just felt like we were so close, and Allura ended up not knowing anything, and it felt like we might not be able to find him after all, and I got frustrated at you for it. I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean it.” He looks a little red, scales glowing high on his cheeks as he couldn’t maintain eye contact. “You’ve been doing this all for me--and for somebody you don’t even know, and I’m grateful. Really.”

Lance blinks a few times, not expecting such an answer. “Wow, um.” He pauses, watching Keith carefully examine him. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not. I’ve been on edge, but it’s not your fault in the slightest. You’ve helped me so much, Lance.”

“You don’t have to go that far, Keith-”

“I do. You’re amazing, Lance. Alright? Just accept that. I’m complimenting you.” He mumbles the end, like he’s now realizing all of the things he blurted out. Lance feels his own cheeks heat up, and his pulse speed up. His hands feel clammy. 

“It really is okay.” He wheezes, feels like he’s more offended by how many compliments Keith just gave him. It felt so sincere coming from Keith’s lips, and he didn’t know what to say to that much being said to him at once. He knows Keith was trying to reassure him, but Lance’s face was on fire and probably spoke volumes to Keith on how he felt. 

His only saving grace was turning it back into a joke. “I can’t believe the great dragon Keith kogane, is thanking little old me. I’ll need to write this down.”

The nervous look On Keith’s face flounders and shrivels into a grimace, and he rolls his eyes. “I regret ever opening my mouth,” He grumbles, and trudges forward. Lance catches up to him easily, and bumps their shoulders together. He does it carefully, considering Keith’s injury, still there. But Keith got the memo, easy grin slipping back from his mouth.

“Thanks, Keith.” Lance chokes out, before he regrets it. “I know it wasn’t under the best circumstances, but I’m glad I could help you so far” He smiles. “Now we just need to find Shiro, and then it’ll be worth something.”

“Allura may not have been much of a lead but… I’m at least glad I got to talk to her. She seems kind. Not that I expected Shiro would fall for someone who _wasn’t_ , but…” He tries to find the words. “I feel like I got to see a more _real_ version as to what she was like, outside of what would otherwise be an awkward introduction. Not that I’m happy we met this way, of course.” He sighs. “How did you meet a mermaid anyway?”

The terrain starts getting slim and rocky once again, and Keith grabs his hand, but it’s not like there’s an actual reason this time, from the looks of it. 

“So you don’t slip.” Keith says, like that explains everything. There was no reason to hold hands. No reason other than the fact Lance likes it, that is, but Keith doesn’t need to know that. It comforts him, but he doesn’t want to voice that just yet. He’ll wait till they get through this, and then maybe he’ll tell Keith how he’s feelings. How his warm grip on Lance’s hand doesn’t only give him butterflies, but a whole fleet of phoenix’s marching around in his stomach.

_Oh yeah. Allura._

“I met her when i was a kid.” He starts. “Being a sea witch, it’s kind of in the job description to interact with sea life a lot. She came to the shore in need of a potion from my mother, and I saw the opportunity to make my move. She wasn’t impressed.”

“You tried to flirt with a _mermaid_?” Keith asks, snorting.

“Yeah, why? Think I couldn’t pull it off?” Lance fires back feeling a tad defensive.

“Well, you certainly didn’t… seem like you were _together_ at any point.” Keith says, awkwardly. He gives Lance a strange look. “You weren’t together...right?”

“Nope. You’re right. She turned me down in a few seconds, after trying to figure out why my ears were so weird and rounded.” He smiles. “We still hung out a lot though, and she was my best friend for most of my childhood. She’s probably another reason I learned to use my magic better-- in order to keep up with a mermaid, you need to have a _lot_ of air. I’d swim with her lots underwater, because it was tiring for her to be on land for too long. It probably helped me connect better with the water, and she taught me some interesting mermaid spells, as well.”

“That sounds fun.” Keith says, a soft look on his face as he holds a hand out to lance to help him climb up a particularly stubborn boulder. “How’d you meet Pidge and Hunk, then?”

Lance shrugs, and uses Keith’s arm to help him up. “I was a curious kid. They were guarding their forest. They found out I wasn’t a real threat when i asked them to play board games with me, and we sort of just kept hanging out. They don’t trust humans very easily, but they like my family and visit us sometimes, since they know me well.”

“But you never left the island with any of them, did you?”

Boy, keith was just _full_ of questions tonight. 

“Nope. It was a little easier to explore in the water, because my parents can’t exactly limit how far I go when they can’t see me.” He laughs.

“I bet you got into lots of trouble when you were a kid.” Keith smirks.

“Not much has changed.” And because he can, he breaks open that last wall. “So, what’s got you so curious about me, anyway?”

“Uh.”

“I mean, you can ask anything you want, because I’ve got nothing to hide, but why the sudden interest?”

Keith contemplates this for a second, before looking away. “I just.” he starts. “I decided to go and do this with you, but I don’t know much about you, and it kinda shocked me when I met Allura? I was looking so hard for a necklace from Shiro’s mysterious girlfriend, and she ended up being one of your closest friends. It just made me realize I want to know more about you.”

“So this isn’t just a “we’ll part ways after we’re done here” situation anymore, huh?” Lance blurts, because of course he’d throw his biggest fear in the open like that. Exposing the wound he’s wanted to hide - his fear that once this is all over, Keith will leave, and they’ll never see each other again. And this journey with Keith will all become a fond, distant memory laced with some regrets and “what if’s”.

“Lance.” Keith says, strictly, waiting until his eyes find their way up to his from the ground. He’s hoping it’s dark enough now to hide the embarrassment in his cheeks. He already knows it’s not.

“Lance, It…” Keith starts, trailing off. “It wasn’t one of those situations. Ever.”

Oh.

Keith looks fidgety, now. “I mean. Maybe at first when i didn’t know you, I thought we could do this and go our separate ways but now… I don’t think I can.” He says, honestly. “Unless that’s what you wanted to do, after this is all over?” And now keith is the one with a lowered voice, sounding unsure and looking for a sign in Lance’s eyes.

“Of course not!” Lance blurts. “I thought that’s what you wanted to do…”

“Well, I don’t.” keith says. “I want to get to know you better. After this is all done. I like being around you.”

“Oh.” Lance says. “I feel the same.”

“Cool.”

“Cool.”

“Now that we got that settled,” Keith interrupts, “We’re almost at the top. Look.”

Keith wasn’t lying. It was a very curved uphill, but with the trees falling behind them, it’d be climbing from this point on. And a lot of curvy, slim trails. How long had they been walking, anyway? It felt like so short a time, and yet, he could see the curve of the hill just up ahead, evening out into a thin span of flat ground. Still far, but close enough that they’d get there before the moon rose. It wouldn’t be much longer now.

The moon had yet to show itself, but they were making good time. With the top just in the distance, they moved faster.

When they finally peek just over the lip of the mountainside, just as Lance saw in his vision, lie a huge gated off structure like a castle, hidden in the depths of the centre of the mountain.

“You ready?” Keith asked, eyes sharp and glowing.

Lance takes in a deep breath. Was he ready? Not really. He had barely learned some of the more basic skills when it came to defense in magic, but he didn’t have another moment to spare and learn. The only lucky part to this is that there was a mote-like fill around the base of the gates, probably seawater that found it’s way through and eroded the bottom of the mountain rock over the years. It looked pretty deep, too. And he could work with that.

He’s still unsure of himself. He doesn’t want to be a burden to Keith, a burden to this mission. He doesn’t want to end up dead, either. They’d be working together, but odds are it was them versus who knows how many witches and soldiers below in the fight that awaited them. He needed to get this perfect the first time around. He had to be able to hold his own out there.

He exhales deep, and puts on the best game face he’s able- for Keith. Shiro, too.

“Let’s go.” he says, and then they begin to descend back down, down into the center of the balmera mountain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter should be up much, much sooner wow.  
> it might end up being 2 if i make a separate one for the epilogue. If you liked it, comments are very inspiring in my writing!! I want to know ur thoughts ;v;   
> Thank you for reading <3


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO, SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG.  
> To make up for it, it's 12k words long SO I'M HOPING THAT FIXES AT LEAST A BIT OF MY ABSENCE WITH THIS STORY ;;;   
> Tt's been a long run, and I'm really excited to have finished this story. This is the last chapter, folks!! please enjoy!!

Making your way down the inside of a collapsed mountain _without_ being seen is for the most part, kind of difficult.

There’s not much to hide behind. There’s plenty of flowers as far as the eye can see, and a few boulders, small trees, or shrubs, but it does very little to cover Keith’s hulking dragon wings even with him pulling them as close to his body as can be. They stand out. Their clothing is bright, and they aren’t as stealthy as previously thought. At least the plants are tall and overgrown.

“Can’t you just like--cover us with some kind of witchy shield? Make us invisible with water, or something?” Keith mutters as they army crawl quietly downward through the loral growth, trying to get to the base of the hideout. The castle-like hideout with a surrounding gate and everything. They even had something mote-like, a huge (and deep looking) ring of ocean surrounding the place. They’d have to trudge through that to get to the other side.

“I may have magic, but sorry Keith, I don’t think making us invisible is really something I know how to do.” Lance mutters right back, crawling alongside him. 

Winging it will probably be their only option for entry. From afar, they couldn't really know what they were dealing with yet, so a plan couldn't really be made until they were right at the gates, looking for a way in. 

They didn’t really make a concrete plan in general, other than _Get in, Get Shiro, Get out._

_At least they had an outline._

Keith continues to complain. 

“It’s starting to stink, too. Do you think there’s some kind of force field around the castle to keep it hidden from magical beings? Is that a thing?”

Lance rolls his eyes. “You act like _I_ know what we’re dealing with better than you do.” He thinks about it for a moment. “But, I guess so. It’s possible, anyway.” Even though they could **see** the castle, meaning there wasn’t a visual blockade. But there might have been something to keep certain things away, If Keith said something felt wrong.

“I don’t know though, Keith. It might just be us having a bad feelings about this place, because I have _plenty,_ trust me.”

“No, there’s definitely something messing with me. It smells awful, and I’m dizzy.”

“What do you mean, Keith, it just smells like--” he stops in his tracks, and turns to Keith. “Oh,” He says, taking in the air again. He grabs a handful of the offensive flowers within arms reach, pulling down some of the long stalks that hovered above them to examine them properly. Keith makes a face of disgust at his side.

He feels an odd sense of Deja vu as he looks the small, purple flowers over in his palms.

_Ah, right. His vision._

“What is it?” Keith asks, eyebrows furrowed.

“It’s Lavender. That messed with you before, right?”

Keith nods.

Okay, so, definitely trying to keep dragons far away from their base.

He shoves the lavender in his pockets, and thinks out loud for a moment. “Do you think they had lavender with them before, too? Maybe they grow it at their bases to repel, and it wasn’t your senses this whole time. Maybe the’ve just been blocking you out from finding Shiro with the flowers?” and if so, couldn’t they have taken other precautions with other magical beings as well?

Keith looks in thought for a moment, before nodding. “You might be right. The old place in the woods was too foggy to tell, but it could have had some, for sure. I couldn't smell Shiro until I was right in the room of that cottage, after all.”

“So you won’t be able to use your sense of smell in their, either, and we’re going to have to find Shiro by sight.”

“I guess so.” Keith says, dejectedly.

Lance pats him on the back. “Keith, don’t worry. We’re gonna get him home, safe and sound.”

“I have a duty to keep _you_ safe as well, Lance.”

Lance bumps his arm. “I can look after myself, thanks for the vote of confidence. Focus on Shiro, alright?”

 _“Fine.”_ Keith grumbles.

The rest of the crawling goes by in silence, before the trouble of swimming comes up, and Keith holds tightly onto Lance the whole way across the rather _huge_ seawater lake.

Getting _in_ was the actual fun part. And by fun, he means _super difficult_ and _almost got them caught._

Climbing up thickly veiled vines attached to the wall was a painful, hit and miss part. And Keith wouldn’t stop complaining because the gate was shrouded in lavender plants.

But they got inside, and that was the important part.

The inside was just as quiet as the outside, them entering from the backside of the base and all. 

Still, it was… _too_ quiet.

“Where do you think everyone went?” Keith asks, scanning the area with bright eyes, sharp and looking in all directions. The moon was high in the sky, and they’d need to hide those if they met up with anyone. There’s no way a soldier would mistake those bright eyes for a cats’ reflective ones.

“We’re around the back of the base, I think.” Lance mentions. “If we can find an unguarded opening, I think we’ll be good.”

“Already found one.” Keith mentions quietly. Lance shoots up to see what he found. Keith is hovering outside an abandoned door, seemingly unlocked.

“Do you think it’s a trick?” Keith asks. “It looks too easy to just be open and left alone like this, you know?”

Lance gulps. “One way to find out.” And then he reaches for the doorknob, and twists it, feeling his gut churn when it caves under his palms, and a shadowy darkness awaits them inside.

Keith pushes forward to go in before Lance, but Lance puts a hand on his chest, and the action, soft as it is, causes Keith to stop in his tracks and peer down at the palm questioningly before looking at Lance, confusion clear on his features.

“I think… I think you should stay out here.” Lance says, quietly. An idea in mind.

Keith is in immediate disagree. “No way! Who knows what you’re walking into?!” Keith nearly shouts, and Lance holds a finger up to Keith’s lips, which really _does_ shut him up entirely. Keith’s warm breath is like molten flame on his finger. 

“Listen, Keith. I know you want to come in with me, but I need someone guarding my back, too. You should stay out here, and keep me safe from the outside. It might be worse for your head in there, you know? What if they have something in there that’s keeping the dragons tame and docile?”

“What do you mean?” Keith asks. 

“I’m not entirely sure, but don’t you think if they have a full fledged dragon as their captive that they might have something strong to keep dragons at bay? What if it wasn’t just the lavender from outside, and they have something else that’s holding them there?” He licks his lips. He’s nervous about this whole thing, but the idea of Keith coming with him and being hurt scares him even more than going in alone.

“Like a spell or something?” Keith clarifies, squinting. 

Lance nods. “I don’t know if I’m right, but I think I can sneak around and get a good look and see before you come in with me. I’d attract less attention too. I want to know what we’re dealing with.” 

Keith sighs. “I don’t want you going in there alone, Lance--”

“ _Please._ ” Lance says. “I don’t know what I’ll do if we went in together and something happened to you. I know sticking together is our best bet, but I just want to get a good look around for anything harmful before you come in, too.”

He doesn’t mention that he thinks even if he gets caught, Keith would be the best option to keep safe. That Keith was plenty stronger, and more important to keep out of harm’s way.

There’s also the fact that Lance really, _really_ doesn’t want to hand another dragon to these assholes.

“Are you really that nervous?” Keith asks.

“I’m terrified.”

Keith frowns at him, looking deeply into his eyes without blinking before he closes his eyes all together, looking pained as he agrees. “Fine. But you better be quick, and you better know how to sneak around. Don’t get caught no matter what, and don’t do anything until I’m right there with you.”

Lance smiles, pushing the door open. “It’ll be fine, Keith. I had a childhood’s worth of years sneaking out and around, I’ll practically blend in with the wallpaper.”

“As long as you’re sure.” Keith says, grabbing his other hand and clasping it tightly, Eyes telling Lance to _be serious._

Lance squeezes his hand and grins. “I’ll be quick. I’m sure.”

“Okay.”

And then he reluctantly slips his hand out of that warm grasp, and slinks inside the doorway, into the shadows.

~

It was dark inside, that’s for sure. It smelled like mowed grass and straw at the same time, the air stale but also cold and unnerving against his skin. He didn’t like being in the dark.

He wasn’t like, afraid of it or anything. But it’s one thing to be walking from the bathroom to your bed in pitch black darkness, and another to be in a foreign base of hunters looking to kill you, with the lights off, and you didn’t know if anyone was in the room with you.

 _Or if you’ll find Keith’s dragon brother, and he ends up eating you._ Lance’s brain supplies.

Lance didn’t really want any of those things to happen. All of those options _sucked_. He really just wanted to check this place out, drag Keith in here, and get a move on.

With that thought in mind, he rustles through his bag, pushing aside bottles and powders and balms to get what he was looking for; his wand.

Tapping at the crystal on the end, it emits a blue hue, just a faint glow that surrounds him just a bit brighter than a glow stick, and allows him to see the ground in front of him. Nothing more.

He Shone the wand around, and eventually comes across a wall in the big open room. It’s made of brick, and cold like the rest of this atmosphere, with with some ironed on plates nailed to the wall, chains locked to it with cuffs on the end, empty and rusted. It looked like an old cellar.

This was _definitely_ a place that they kept prisoners, once upon a time.

The thought alone gives a brief shiver up Lance’s spine, and he carries on, fast. _time to go, time to go…_

He follows the wall around, and what he does find is a plethora of rusted shackles, just like the first set, nailed to the wall and lacking prisoners. Which honestly, he’s kind of thankful for, considering how he wouldn’t know how to get them out at this point in time.

There’s some trays of equipment, small knives and vials, tongs and tweezers on a mat. There’s abandoned cells, too. He shines the light across them just to make sure, but there’s nobody in there. Unless, of course, ghosts are a thing in here.

 _Stop it, Lance._ He thinks to himself, trying to calm down.

But the number of abandoned cells and shackles was….concerning, to say the least.

They came here for Shiro, but they might have a lot of other people on their hands to deal with. A lot of creatures had gone missing from hunters, after all.

He’s about to turn back to the doorway to the outside and get Keith, tell him the coast is clear, considering the room was empty. But his eyes get dragged away from the door when he sees a puddle of dark black on the ground, off to his left.

He shines the wand toward it, and feels a rush of cold.

There’s no body, but the dark liquid all over the floor is most definitely blood. Fresh blood at that, and plenty of it. He’s about to kneel down to really check it out, see if that’s all it is, when he feels a warm breath go right into his ear, and a laugh fill his mind. He dares not to turn around, but he knows he’s been caught.

“What are you looking for, Witch?” Haggar sneers, and he knows it’s her, just from the throaty grumble she speaks in.

A lot of thoughts rush through his mind. 

_Call for Keith._

_What if they already got him? Do they know that Lance is with Keith, or do they think He’s alone?_

_He should run.  
Turn around and face Haggar. Your wand is in your hand - but what spell to use? _

_Run._

**Run.**

But Haggar catches on fast, and even with him making the slightest of movements toward the door, she’s caught him, and he feels a hot zap of electricity go down his spine, making him cry out and tumble to his hands and knees.

“Keith!” He yells, with the split second he has left before it all goes to hell, with the time he has left for certain, hoping that even if he’s caught, Keith can get away, run, find Shiro himself. _something_.

And then it all goes dark.

~

When Lance wakes up, he’s on the cold floor, dust coating his nostrils and his ears popping as he wakes to the sound of cheers and screams.

What?

His head is still in pain. What did Haggar do, anyway? Whatever it was, it knocked him out quick, but everything seemed to be… working, at least. Even if he did feel like he made out with a sledgehammer, and his brain turned into swirly alphabet soup while he was asleep.

He could worry about that later, though. For now, there was definitely some more concerning things.

His stuff is gone. All he had on him was the clothes on his back, bag and wand nowhere near him, or at least from what he could feel.  
He couldn’t see anything, but he could hear screams of people all around him.   
How long had he been out, anyway? Keith could have been captured and killed if he was out for too long, and that thought alone sends a rush of panic through him  
He had to get out of here. He had to find Keith. He had to find _Shiro_. 

As soon as he sits up, his mind is swimming. It doesn’t help when, as if triggered from his awakening, circular, purple lights, with a loud bang, start turning on all around him, bringing the cheers to scream louder.

With blurry eyes, he looks around, and sees the lights have formed a circle around him. There’s enough light that he can now see people above him, above the walls with lights, screaming--no, _cheering_.

He’s in a stadium. _An arena._

But what is he fighting?

His head darts around, and he sees the hulking door at the end of the arena, fifty times the size of a human, and slowly rolling upward, pulling up like a rock curtain, ready to reveal a massive creature he undoubtedly would have to fight to live, unless he came up with a good plan and fast.

And at the other end of the arena? A podium, with what looked to be his wand standing tall. Even though it’s a relief to see it wasn't taken--he’s still got bigger problems. He turns back to the massive door.

Just as he gets a viewing of large, clawed feet, the lights around him start to dim again, and the audience quiets down, waiting for the fight to begin.

Lance needed his wand for a fighting chance, but he couldn’t see in the dark. He wasn’t like Keith.

Whatever he was facing was huge--and yeah, it could probably see in the dark, just his luck. The best plan he’s got is to quietly step back until he hits a wall, so he can find his way to the other side of the stadium. To keep him as far out of the open as he can be until he reaches his wand.

But he’s never been that lucky, has he?

He trips over something on his way back, and his breath hitches as he catches on the log-like thing and falls to the ground, making a loud thump noise. Maybe it hadn’t been heard over the murmuring crowd?

To no avail, he goes to touch the thing that he tripped on, and freezes when he can feel the hot scales under his fingertips. Even as the beast turns to look at him in the darkness with slitted, glowing eyes, he already knows what he’s been put in a cage with.

“Shiro?” He whispers, and the creature’s eyes hold no recognition, but continue to narrow in on it’s prey. On Lance.

It’s a dragon. He’s not sure if it’s Shiro for sure, but this dragon…. _Oh boy._ He thought Keith was pretty large in dragon form, but Keith was the size of a houscat compared to this beast. It towered over Lance, hulk-like and menacing _before_ it even opened its mighty jaws, smoke trailing out of the seams between teeth and filling Lance’s nose until his eyes watered.

If he didn’t act fast, he was going to be eaten. Possibly by Shiro. He didn’t know how well this would go over with Keith if they had a family meeting once this was all done.

He jumps back, tumbling on two feet out of the way just as the dragon goes in for the kill. It could see in the dark, so it trailed it’s eyes over to Lance, and moved slowly, hunched over and close to the ground, eyes large like a lion coming in on it’s prey.

Lance chooses this time to run. It’s not like there was any more sneaking around when he had a metaphorical target on his back, right? It’s his only shot at getting his wand, anyway.

And yeah, he makes a good show with a few of his moves, leaping an tumbling out of the way just in time before the mighty dragon claws come down from above. He can hear the audience cheer and boo, but he’s a little more concerned with the fire the dragon is starting to spout in frustration at it’s own movements.

At least he can see his wand now, only a few feet away.

But that’s when it goes wrong, and when that massive claw aims just right and takes lance down, winding him as he meets the floor. He only realizes he’s been screaming when the beast pushes it’s claws further into his leg.

Lance, all of a sudden, remembers the Lavender he shoved in his pocket earlier. 

His _pocket_ , not his bag.

When those jaws come close enough, he holds the fist full of flowers out, and the dragons’ features shrivel up, pulling back just enough, and dragging Lance’s leg with it, making him howl in pain.

But then the creature lets up, and Lance is free, gasping in pain as his blood comes out like a fountain at his thigh, in the shape of three huge puncture wounds. Much worse than a little siren wound from a few days prior.

The creature lets out another shout, and Lance looks up, because oh, yeah, he’s somehow not dead.

But there’s Keith, in all his fiery red and purple scaled glory, attacking the face of this thing, making the large dragon step back a few times before it falls from unbalance.

Wings unbound, Keith hovers in the air for a moment, just long enough to see Lance, and hit the ground running.

Keith is away from the dragon in a second, leaping toward Lance in big strides, until he loses the wings and scales and melts back into a human figure before Lance’s very eyes, falling to the floor with him and closing the distance between them, holding tightly at his shoulders.

“Are you okay?!” He practically screams, eyes alight, scared, and furious all at once. He’s bleeding from the hairline, a stream of dried blood cutting off at his cheek and another fresh cut alongside his nose, blood smeared. 

“Ouch,” Lance says belatedly to the claws digging into his shoulders. Keith frowns and lets up, eyes still searching his. Lance gives him a wobbly smile.

“I’m fine. You got here in time. Are you okay, though? What happened?” He’d judge Keith for disobeying a doctor’s orders later. 

“I’m fine. When you called me, I tried to get to you, but Haggar ha already taken you somewhere else. She did send a hell of a ton of guards me way, though. They didn’t last that long, though.” He smirks. 

“Good,” Lance says, relieved. His eyes search behind Keith, to the beast trying to regain it’s composure. “...Is that him?”

Keith turns around, a rueful expression on his face. Mixed emotions dance in his eyes. Mostly sadness. 

“Yeah, that’s him.”

“Lance stands up and hobbles over to the podium, ignoring the pained look he just knows that Keith is throwing his way. He grabs the wand, and nods toward Keith.

“You have the bracelet from Allura, right?” He asks, and Keith nods, pulling his eyes up from the blood running down Lance’s leg. 

“Yeah.”

“Then let’s get your brother back.”

~

So here’s how it was gonna go:

Keith would distract Shiro for as long as he can and tries to get his attention , While lance does his best to pull what water he can out of the air. They were gonna see if they could get enough to make a dragon sized muzzle. The seawater outside would be of more use to him, but they were encased in a prison, basically. So They were gonna do the best they could with what they had.

Lance would bind enough water around Shiro to slow his movements, or at least enough to close those mighty jaws from breathing fire over their bodies.

Keith gets a bonding moment with Shiro, and tries to make him remember who he is while they’ve got him under reigns. 

They’d probably have a minute at most.

 

Their plan backfires almost immediately, when Keith flies, and since Shiro was tailing him like a hawk, flies too, and they jump into the stadium crowd, people fleeing left and right to avoid the mighty dragons. Lance is pretty sure that most of the people in the crowd were guards and warriors like they came across in the forest, since they started shooting at Shiro as well, maybe with hopes to get him back under their control. But with the building shaking the way it was, nobody stayed around, not even them.

It wasn’t exactly entertainment anymore, and the people of the crowd scattered, running to the nearest exits. Keith runs up against a wall, and dodges just in time for the wall to be bashed through by Shiro, making an open escape to the outside. 

But it’s fine, Lance can work with that. While Keith escapes out the broken wall, Shiro hot on his trail, Lance propels himself shakily up the stadium wall with a blast of water he _had_ gathered, grasping the edge of the brick wall by the tips of his fingers and hauling himself up, blending in with the chaos in the stands.

He runs to where Keith went, just outside the walls.

~

He’s greeted with moonlight, which means he can’t have actually been out of it for all that long. And then he’s greeted by fire, blazing over his head the second he’s out of that dreadful place.

They have to act fast, because they’re out in the open, and if an angry rampaging Shiro decides he wants to fly off in the middle of the night to turn some island into his new fiery nest, nobody’s gonna be able to stop that.

But they’re out in the open now, and just beyond this last gate, there was the seawater that had surrounded the base. Which gave them the advantage. He takes full advantage of it, focusing on the sound of the water and where it was, pulling it up and over the castle gates even though he couldn’t see it.

But it works, and He has streams of water floating over the tops of the gate, just enough that he can wrap it around the legs of a slow moving shiro. Keith looks over to Lance, and with a nod of confirmation, runs up to shiro, pulling the bracelet out.

“Shiro! If you can hear me, I need you to come back, okay?!” Keith shouts.

Shiro makes a screaming growl in response, and the ground rumbles underneath them. It seems to have an effect, too, because the stadium walls they escaped out of start to crumble further, cracks spreading along the walls.

“Shiro!” Keith says, dragging the dragons’ attention back to his face, and to the bracelet. “Allura couldn’t come here to help you, but this is the best we’ve got. Don’t you want to see her again?” and with another gulp, adds, “We have stuff we need to sort out, too.”

The dragon roars.

And then, breaks free of Lance’s binding, knocking Keith to the side and making him hit the ground sharply. The bracelet goes flying.

“I got it!” Lance yells to Keith, and goes to grab the small object. Keith is already up, and maneuvering out of Shiro’s way again, eyes on Lance as he scurries for the object.

Once he grabs it, he tosses it back to Keith. 

Lance tries again at binding, with as much water as he can pull from over the wall, and from what covered the ground. He pulls at Shiro’s mighty legs, and winding the stream around his muzzle, pulling him close to the ground, like chains. The dragon seems to freeze up at this.

Keith comes up to him once again, and takes a slower approach this time, being close enough to place his hand on Shiro’s snout, ignoring the heated smoke being exhaled through his nose. Lance watches, frozen in place. He hopes this works.

“Shiro,” Keith tries again, voice soft, and looks into his eyes. “It’s me. Keith. Remember?”

The dragon snorts in frustration. Keith, childishly, does the same. His eyebrows furrow up as he gets impatient, and Lance wonders if he should _really_ be leaving this all to Keith. 

“If you stay like that forever, you can’t meet with Allura again. And you can’t go on secret dates with her anymore and hide it from me.” He sighs, shoulders falling loosely. He speaks quieter. “And we can’t talk about what happened, and I’ll never know if you forgive me. So…” he huffs. Glaring at the dragon. “It’d be really great if you turned back now, okay?”

First, nothing happens. They just stare at each other.

But then, Lance feels the tension of the dragon cut off, as the beast relaxes under the reigns, and Lance almost trips with how he’s suddenly pushing so much magic on keeping something down that isn’t resisting.

He lets the water fall. It’s a risk, but it seems to be the right thing to do. 

It’s just like with Keith’s transformation -- It’s done before he can properly blink, but the huge beast he was in the ring with shrivels in the most fascinating way, scales and wings melting into human flesh, and a clothed being stands there instead of the beast moments before.

“Shiro.” Keith says, running forward and hugging the man before anything else could be said or done.

He was tall, attractive, and definitely more dragon-like in features, compared to Keith’s human form. Where Keith had occasional patches of scales, wings, and glowing, slitted eyes--this man had horns to go with that, and nails longer and sharper than Keith. His wings? Five times Keith’s size. And even if he was human, the muscle on him looked of something with superhuman strength, and his white and black hair helped top the ‘supernatural’ vibe he had going on. 

So this was Shiro. Huh.

When Keith parts from the man, it they both get a really good look at him -- And the missing arm. How had he not noticed that as a dragon?

Keith looks pained, staring at his arm.

“What did they do to you?” 

Shiro’s lips quirk up in a sad smile, and he doesn’t answer, but notices Lance, who has come into his field of view, finding it safe to limp over to them. Maybe not.

Shiro’s posture stiffens, and his wings flare up. There’s definitely some hostility there as he leans forward, moving to Lance.

“What is another witch doing here?” Shiro says, and oh, there’s the scary, deep, protective dragon voice he was expecting when he saw that mighty beast transform back. 

But the aggressive nature doesn’t last long, because Keith leaps in front of Shiro, wings fanning out to cover Lance and keep Shiro away. Keith makes a clicking noise, deep from his throat. Shiro stares at him for a long moment, and Keith and him communicate through their eyes before speaking. 

“Who is this?” Shiro asks, eyes zipping between the two.

Keith’s grip Lands on Lance’s arm, and he holds him tightly by the arm, still keeping guard, but tugging Lance forward a little bit, showing him to Shiro. “This is Lance. He risked everything to help me find you, okay? He’s good. He’s also one of Allura’s friends.” 

Shiro’s eyes light up at the mention of his girlfriend. His wings seem to lay flat, eased once again. Keith relaxes at his side, too. It’s silent for a moment.

“If you trust him, Keith, I’ll believe you.” his eyes are still slightly wary, but he looks less tense. Lance can’t even blame the guy.

“Thank you,” Keith sighs, and moves away from Lance, a faint blush across his nose, as if noticing how close they just were.

And just then, with the peace at it’s peak, Lance is pushed back, pain thrumming through his entire body as he’s thrown, eyes flashing white.

He’s confused, because he was just standing with Keith and Shiro, but now there’s a pain in his gut and his eyes are to the sky.

“Lance!” Keith yells, and all their eyes shoot to where the blast of magic had shot at him from, up on the top of the stadium stood the witch, electric energy pouring out of her hands.

“Haggar.” Shiro spits. Keith is growling and at his side in a moment, Lance pushes himself up with a groan, trying not to depend too much on Keith, who’s already at his side, frantic. 

He’s not sure how many more hits he can take today. How many any of them could. His leg was already killing him to walk on after Shiro’s attack, but his other injuries weren’t doing well either.

He’d have to worry about it later.

The next few moments go by quickly. It’s the same setup at the house in the woods. Lance injured, and Keith enraged -- acting on it in his anger, charging at Haggar. Even Shiro had turned back into a dragon, both of them charging toward Haggar and avoiding her attacks, leaving Lance on his own. 

It gives him an opening to stir up some of his own trouble while Haggar wasn’t looking, and He could maybe, _just maybe_ help his friends out.

The castle base was basically falling apart at this rate. The stadium wall damage had spread, and a giant dragon thumping around plus a magic witch on a rampage didn’t seem to be doing great for the structural damage. The gate was still up, but there was tiles loose under his feet, and he gets an idea.

Probably a terrible, awful idea, but it might just work.

The water around the castle base was deep enough that he didn’t know where it ended. It wasn’t just a simple leak at the base of the mountain. When he swam through the massive ring of water surrounding the base, he knew it was less like a mote, and more like a long tunnel of water going downward before connecting out to the ocean again. The water was at level with the ocean itself, and since the mountain was pretty huge, he didn’t know how deep it went. But from the looks of it, they probably built this place on the surface of the water, altering the rock base with magic. And the was definitely deep enough to capsize the whole structure, that’s for sure.

And that was the new plan, as long as he didn’t mess it up.

“Shiro!” He calls, and Shiro’s head snaps his way. “I got an idea, But i’ll need you to get the other prisoners out, first. Me and Keith can hold Haggar until then!”

Shiro stares at him for a long moments before nodding, wings shooting out like huge fans behind him as he darts back through the stadium.

“What are you doing?!” Keith shouts, dodging a beam sent his way by Haggar.

“I have an Idea! But for now, just trust me and help me keep Haggar at bay!”

Haggar doesn’t have much to say if she does hear them talk, but continues throwing balls of electric energy their way, causing them to split up.

They keep her at bay for what feels like forever, dodging her attacks and throwing some of their own back at her as Lance pulls water from the skies and makes shots back to her, throwing her electric energy back into her own face as Keith keeps him safe, guarding him well. In no time at all, they see the stream of prisoners flood out the stadium, followed by Shiro.

“Everyone is out, Lance!”

And that’s his cue.

With a wave of his hands and the utmost concentration, he focuses on bringing the water up through the cracks in the tile below him. _Just like when you dried Keith’s clothes off, right Lance? Just on a bigger scale._ He tells himself, and takes a deep breath, and closes his eyes.

The ground they stand on rumbles, and Keith, Shiro, and Haggar pause in their fighting to n lock onto him. Haggar seems to realize what he’s doing first, and goes to launch herself at him, but Keith and Shiro grab a hold of her to fend her off before she can get too close.

Which is good, because Lance needs all the room to work with he can get,

In only moments, spouts of water shoot up from the ground, the foundation of the base starting to crack, and water running along the seams. Lance was going to take this place down. Water was his element, he’d be fine in a battle with Haggar in the water. Keith couldn’t fly, but Shiro could get him to safety. It should be fine.

Shiro and Keith continue to hold Haggar back and fight her while Lance concentrates, and Lance can hear her screeches of pain, and can feel the slowness of her movements as the treads through the water. They could win this.

The walls start falling, and more water gushes up along lance’s ankles as the tiles split and the building walls start to shed, cracking off and making the air dusty with cement powder.

In moments, the grounds split and the water comes rushing up to meet them. Keith shrieks slightly in alarm, but throws himself to the highest ground before shiro grabs him, soaring.

Lance did it.

And it all goes terribly wrong when Haggar has enough of an opening to throw a ball of energy right at him, and he flies before falling into the water, debris crashing around him.

“Lance!” Keith calls, and he hears, just before he goes under. But it’s still okay. He’s in pain, but he’s got this.

Haggar comes after him as he comes up for air.

She smiles wickedly at him. “First you come for my champion, and then you destroy my whole palace and let my other prisoners free.” She spits, laughing. “It’s unbelievable. You? A puny, untalented witch like yourself? I can’t believe this.” She scoffs, claws digging into his neck. He can hear screaming in the background. “You couldn’t even do anything in the arena, and yet you tore down this place, albeit slowly. We worked to make this place what it was for a long time. You’ll pay for that.”

He grins at the threat, and gets a tight hand around hers, gripping that arm and trying to clear his airway enough to speak. “You haven’t even seen my real talent yet,” he says, and grabs onto her, falling back into the water and dragging her down with him.

Lance has got a good grip on her, and smiles through the chaos--the water dragging them down on his command. The shock in those yellow eyes as she realizes her wrongdoing, what a mistake it was to challenge Lance in the water-- that he thrives on it, and this was his plan all along. 

To get her to go after him, and drag her to the depths himself.

She claws and scratches at him, attempting to throw energy at him from under the water, but the waves were pulling too strongly at her, and Lance holds her tightly.

This is for Keith and Shiro, He thinks, before making energy of his own, now in his element, and steals the breath from her lungs with the force of the waves. He wraps her in the current and pushes her down, down, down, and watches her spiral, makes _them both_ spiral, as he makes something akin to an underwater tornado pull them, and debris along into the spin cycle.

In a last attempt to save himself, he sends the tornado of water down with her in it, but her sharp nails grab at his moving legs at an attempt at salvation, or taking him down with her. Her long, demon like nails rip through the still tender flesh of the siren wound, and he screams out in the water, bubbles floating from his lungs as they collapse in on themselves. 

He attempts to kick her off, and it works. She goes down with the current, weakened, her blazing eyes being the last he sees of her as she sinks into the dark. He doesn’t wait around to watch her further.

He’s not in the clear yet. 

In his mind, breaking apart the castle from the base had been a great idea in the moment, but now that he was swimming among the debris and trying to find a way to the surface? Not convenient.

Faded moonlight leaks around the broken pieces, but it doesn’t make swimming up much easier. It’s just like back then, with Keith, and the Sirens, only now he has obstacles and no wand to work with, or light his way. He must’ve dropped it earlier.

He can’t breathe.

He’s got water in his lungs, and it hurts. If he coughs now, he’ll just take it more water.  
His vision blurs, and in the distance when he looks up, he can see the shadowy figure swimming towards him.

Just as predicted.

~

When he wakes up, he’s in his bed.

He missed his soft bed, and his wool blankets. He seriously took them for granted when he was out with Keith all those nights. The distant smell of baked goods being made from downstairs fills his nose, and he revels in the warm sunset light pouring out onto him from the window.

It’s all pretty weird, considering he was supposed to be on a mountain and trudging out of that mountain with a victory march considering him and Keith saved Shiro and a bunch of other prisoners?

Wait a minute.

He jolts up in bed, and looks himself over. There’s bandages and stitching through his arm, and he can feel some on his leg too. All his scrapes and cuts are covered with soft wrapping, and the gun wound from days before is also covered and mended. What.

He hears footsteps approach the door, and tenses up, leaning against the bedframe.

Shiro walks through the door, looking domestic as a dragon could possibly be, a calm expression on his face and a tray of steaming mugs and hot food in his arms. When he sees Lance awake, he perks up with a smile. There’s bandages covering his arms as well.

“Lance, You’re awake!” 

Lance blinks a few times, before he finally can think of the first question he wants to ask. In that time, Lance pulls up a stool next to his bed and sets the tray aside.

Lance gulps. “What happened? I remember Haggar, and being dragged down, but then…” His eyes widen. “ _Keith!_ Is Keith okay?” He asks, heart sinking as he realises the one big missing piece. He pushes himself out of bed, wounds screaming, but Shiro stops him, holding his shoulders.

“Hey! Hey, it’s okay. You were the worst out of us. Keith is downstairs, alright? He’s having tea with your mother.”

“How long was I out?” He asks.

“Only about a day. Your body had been through quite a bit, and you’re struggling from magical exhaustion on top of the wounds, your mom said, so let’s take is slowly, alright?” At this, Lance sighs and reluctantly calms down, laying back against the headboard even if his body wants to run. 

Lance sighs. “So what happened? After I fainted.”

“Well,” Shiro draws out, “Haggar didn’t come back up, but neither did you, so Keith panicked. I went to jump in to get you, but he impulsively jumped in first, and came back a good thirty seconds later with you passed out in his arms.”

“And?” Lance prompts.

“You weren’t breathing.”

 _“Oh.”_ That’s... a scary thought. He Gulps. “What… what did Keith do?” Lance asks, and thinking harder about what Shiro said, he asks. And how did he get me? Keith can’t swim. He’s afraid of the water.”

“A dragon seeing something they care about in danger is probably the only way to get them to do something like that. Keith cares a lot about you, Lance. After he surfaced, he wouldn’t even let me close to you until he snapped out of it.” Shiro frowns. “Keith gave you CPR and you were fine, but you still weren’t looking so hot. Keith’s wing is still damaged, so I flew you guys here on my back, and Keith made sure to take care of you until we got here. After that, your mother treated you, then us, and now we’re here. Keith and I have just been waiting for you to wake up.”

Lance feels his cheeks grow hot. “Sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?” Shiro snorts. “I’m the one who put those holes in your leg. I should be the one apologizing. You saved our lives, Lance. I would still be confused and pacing that cage in dragon form along with the others if you hadn’t been with Keith.” He smiles, maybe a bit too knowingly. “He told me all about what happened, by the way. Thank you, for looking out for him. It means the world to me.”

“I guess. And it’s fine,” He hums, pulling the blanket past his wrapped leg. “It’ll heal with time.”

Shiro nods, still frowning at the wound, regret in his eyes.

Lance looked to him, and smiled. “I was glad to help the both of you, Shiro.” _and speaking of which…_ “Oh,” he adds, remembering. “Allura came with us, then. Did you meet with her again?”

Shiro’s grins, tension gone. “Yes… She was waiting at the base of the mountain, and Keith and I went to her first to tell her to swim ahead to warn your mother to get prepared to see us.” 

“That’s all?” How boring.

It must show on his face, because Shiro laughs. “I’ve seen her since then, Lance. We talked for a few hours, earlier. Sorted things out.”

Lance hums, and briefly wondering how many boundaries he’s crossing. “Did you sort things with Keith, too?”

Shiro nods, looking a little sad again. “I wish we hadn’t left each other on such a bad note, but we worked it out while you were out of it. We both said some unnecessary things in the end, and he was hurting because of the things I kept from him. That was my fault, and I assured him it wouldn’t happen again.” Shiro grins. “It’s also good to know him and Allura met because of you two hanging together--things worked out pretty fine, in the end.” he looks down at his arm, upset crossing his features. “Mostly, anyway. But We’ll move past it. In time.”

 

Lance smiles sadly at him, and nods.

“Can I…. Can I go down and see him?”

Shiro smiles. “I’ll help you down to him.”

~

Of all the things Lance expected to see, Keith eating biscuits and slouching like a pouting 8 year old at the dining room table with his siblings hanging off each of Keith’s arms and pestered him--wasn’t one of them. He had so many questions.

His first _verbal_ one is, “I thought you only ate goat meat, Spyro?”

All three heads shoot in his direction as he leans against the wall and grins. Shiro pats his shoulder and moves past him to grab the kids, who eagerly smile at shiro and his huge dragon wings fluttering behind him.

“Who want to go out for a short flight?” Shiro asks.

“We do!” his siblings scream.

And then they’re gone, and Keith and him are alone. Keith is on him in seconds flat, arms wrapped around his waist and that warm face breathing air like fire into the crook of his neck, curling those nails lightly into his skin.

“You scared me, Lance.”

_Oh._

“This is all my fault.” He continues. Lance wants to stop that train of thought as soon as he can.

“No it’s not!” He protests. “Who’s the one that said if I get hurt it wouldn’t be on them?” He laughs, cut shortly by Keith’s upset whimper. Okay, so the attempted joke backfired. Good job Lance.

“Keith, it’s seriously not your fault, okay? It’s mine.”

Lance sighs, and dips his head into Keith’s shoulder as well, making them go as close as they possibly can. Keith smelled like pine trees and cinnamon hearts. He must have taken a shower and used some of his older brothers’ weird shampoo. 

“Sorry, Keith.” Lance says, meaning it. “I didn’t really think. I just wanted to save you guys, and do what I could.”

“Yeah, you didn’t think.” Keith hissed out, and Lance tugs back at the words, but Keith doesn’t let go of him, not willing to risk it again. His grip almost possessive. But it was probably justified, after he almost died.

“Even though im kind of mad still...you saved us, Lance. And I’m glad you’re okay.” He grins, those lips quirking. “But next time, tell me a little more of what you’re planning _before_ you do something like that again, okay? I could have lost you. Your _mom_ could have lost you.”

“Yeah.” Lance mumbles. “I’ll tell you next time.”

“We’ll think of a better plan next time. Together.” He pulls back, holding loosely onto Lance, still smiling. “I’m just glad we did it and made it out in one piece.”

Lance shrugs, and tries not to wince at the pain in his arm. “We make a good team, Keith.”

“We do.”

They end up taking a long walk. Lance wanted to get some fresh air, and Keith didn’t seem like he would be leaving his side anytime soon in the near future. He was like a life sized leech who wanted affection--for the moment, anyway--and Lance was happy to indulge in the sudden neediness, after all they had went through. They finally had time to discuss and talk things out together.

When they get to the top of the hill to watch the sunset, Keith speaks first.

“You were amazing out there, you know.”

“Oh yeah?” Lance grinned. Despite the plan working, but also almost killing him, he didn’t really expect for Keith to stroke his ego after that. But it’s not like he’d say no to that any time soon.

“Yeah,” Keith says, face illuminating red. “I didn’t see any of that coming, and your power is much more impressive than you give yourself credit for.”

“I told you I had skills, didn’t I?” Lance goads, grinning from ear to ear while mock gasping. “And you doubted my abilities. _How dare you._ ”

Keith flusters. “That’s why I’m saying it now, obviously!” He rubs at his cheeks, getting redder by the minute.

Lance liked embarrassing him. And liked looking at him. This was nice. “Didn’t think I could make a little whirlpool, did ya, Keith?”

“That looked more like a _typhoon_ from where I was standing, Lance.”

Lance smacks his arm lightly. “Oh, stop. You’re embarrassing me, Keith.” He laughs. Keith grins along, and leans into him. Lance tries not to freeze up, but he’s having a hard time with it, when his entire body suddenly feels like it’s on fire. _Crushes suck. And rock at the same time. Ugh._

“The necklace your mom gave me… it broke during the fight.” Keith says, sadly. “Do you think there’s any way you could fix it?”

“Oh?” Lance briefly remembers his mother handing him something like that before they left, and he watched the little gems dangle off Keith’s chest from time to time. “Yeah, I can probably fix it up pretty fast. I make my own too, after all.”

Keith nods, humming. They stare at the sunset for a moment.

“Keith--”

“Lance--”

_Awkward._

“You go first,” Keith says, blinking, and looking away. He was still blushing. 

“I was wondering--”

 **“LANCE MCCLAIN, YOU GET BACK TO THIS HOUSE THIS INSTANT.”** echoes his mother, from the front lawn.

They freeze at the angry sound, and look at each other for a moment, before standing up, Keith helping Lance to his feet, and supporting him by the shoulder. He still had a limp.

“Ask me later, yeah? You haven’t even seen your mother yet, have you?” Keith snorts.

“Not yet, no.” Lance winces. “And yeah. Okay.”

Despite his worries of where they stand, they still hold hands on the way back down. It settles his heart for a little while, at least.

~

He gets the longest hug he’s ever gotten in his life, and he’s had a _lot_ of drastically long hugs, okay. He doesn’t have a timer, but it feels like hours. And just when the hold on him loosens, and he tries to run, his mother pulls keith in for a group hug, too, still very careful of his wings. Lance groans. He can hear Keith laughing quietly beside his ear.

Shiro spends the night for dinner, and his family seems pretty excited to meet a conversational dragon, since Shiro actually answers all their questions. It’s embarrassing for him, But Shiro plays along, and the night goes over quite well. 

Lance tries to offer up his bed for Shiro, but Shiro says he’ll sleep on the couch. He tries to argue with him, but Keith already is tugging him to bed, and things seem to settle quickly. He’s back in his normal routine again, only with two dragons included in the schedule.

 _But they can’t stay forever,_ his mind says, as he looks at Keith’s sleeping face late that night. He has a little trouble falling asleep, now.

~

In the bright early morning, Lance knocks at the door his mothers’ potions room, finally able to get a moment to speak with her in the silent house. She looks up, smiling in a way that shows she knew he’d be coming, and moves over and pats the spot next to her on the bench she’s sitting on. She seemed to be working on something pink and fizzy. But apparently it could wait, because she gives Lance her full attention as she rests the beaker and puts her tools down.

“How are you feeling, Lance?”

He sits down. “Pretty good. Leg hurts like hell, and my shoulder is sore, but healing. It’s mostly my leg, but at least I’ll have some cool battle scars, right?”

She looks upset and bumps his arm. Okay, he’s not good with the jokes lately. Whoops.

“I was so worried. Every day you were gone I checked runes and tried to distract myself, but even work couldn’t keep me occupied for long. It was so silent in the house without you, Lance.”

“That’s good, right?” He tries. She shoots him a look. He holds his hands up in apology.

“It was awful. I was scared for you, yes, but… I was confident I could trust your words. It didn’t make it any easier to stop myself from getting a boat and going out to find you.” she runs a hand through her hair, tidying it nervously to one side. “I felt awful about sending you alone, but in the end…. You were right about what you said.”

Lance perks up at this. 

“I said you weren’t ready when I sent you, but that’s a lie. I was being too protective, and I didn’t want to see my other son leave, too.”

“Mama…”

“No, it’s… it’s okay. I just wanted to let you know that you were right, though.” She smiles in a small way. “I spoke with Keith and Shiro individually, and they both told me how amazing you were out there. Keith didn’t even want to leave your bed at first until I forced him to eat.” She laughs a little, and pauses. “I was far too hard on you, and ended up making you feel like you weren’t good enough of a witch yet for these kinds of things. I was trying to keep you from expressing yourself because I was scared for myself. I’m truly sorry, Lance.”

He didn’t really expect to be harassed by feelings this early in the morning, but here they are and his eyes are getting foggy. It’s what he’s wanted to hear for a long time, that he was good enough, that he was doing everything right, and if it’s from his mother too, now… well, he’ll believe it.

He gives her a hug to hide his watery eyes, and she squeezes him tightly, regarding his wounds still.

“Thank you, mom.” and, with a bit of hesitation, “I have something I came in here to ask you, actually.” he pulls back, and rubs at his eyes. 

She has a knowing look in her eyes, and nods. Lance talks to her.

~

Meeting with Pidge and Hunk again is the fun part, and takes his mind off the inevitable for a short period of time. Shiro seems excited to meet them, too. 

“Dude! You’re back from the dead!” Hunk says, addressing Lance.

“I didn’t _die_ , Hunk.” 

“Tell that to Pidge, who felt your pulse stop from who knows how far away.”

“Seriously, Pidge?” Lance asks, turning his head to them. They nod.

“It was only for a moment, but i’m glad you ended up being okay. I would’ve missed you.” And then Lance gets that bone-crushing hug from Pidge, who was actually very strong, despite weighing a feather. Fae were interesting creatures.

“Aww, me too, buddy.” He says, and rustles Pidge’s hair.

“I take it all back,” They say, groaning and pushing Lance away, while trying to fix their hair. Keith smiles at his side, and melts in as part of the group easily. They all take notice to Shiro at that moment, as well.

“Ah, so you must be the famed Shiro we’ve heard about.” Pidge says, small wings fluttering to bring them to eye level with Shiro, who blinks rapidly before smiling as Pidge pokes his horns. 

“That would be me.” He smiles. “You both helped Keith and Lance find me as well, right? Thank you.”

“It was mostly Pidge,” Hunk says, trotting around Shiro to look at those massive black wings. “I just made the snacks. And speaking of which, Shiro, have you ever tried a centaur’s baking? Because I may have made a few dozen different treats in celebration for you guys coming back.”

“Not before today, but I’ll definitely take you up on the offer.” Shiro says. Hunk’s smile is like the sun, full of excitement as he rushes off to get the food. 

That moment seems to last forever in the forest. They spend most of the day there, basking in the moment.

~

When they walk along the stone path back to Lance’s house, Shiro’s the one to break the ice.

“I should probably head back home tonight.”

Keith moves forward, letting Lance’s hand go. He’s suddenly cold.

“Hey, really? ...So soon?” Keith asks, concerned.

“Yeah. I miss our cave, and although it’s nice to be in the care of a witch doctor, I’m a little homesick. I think it’s best to get back into the old routine, you know? I miss home.”

Keith frowns, but nods. “Maybe…. Maybe I should come with you?”

 _“No!”_ Lance says out loud, totally on accident. Two sets of eyes land on him. 

“Uh. I mean, _uh--_ why don’t you just wait till morning? It’s super late now, you know? Travelling in the cold dark might not be so great.” He laughs awkwardly, to end the statement.

Even with his lame excuse, they all know what’s really happening, it’s written on their faces. Shiro knows Lance is just pushing this all off, too.

Shiro bumps his arm softly.“It’s not a permanent thing, Lance. I’ve been away from home too long. I won’t leave before thanking your family for your hospitality first, either. Plus, If Keith wants to stay here a little longer, I won’t mind. I can come back for you in a few days, if you’d like. Your wing is still healing.”

“But what about the hunters?” Keith cuts in. “I have to go with you.”

Shiro pats his back. “It’s fine, keith. They caught me off guard while I was on _land_ before. Plus, I was distracted. I’ll stay safe this time, and it’ll be okay. I think they might lay off for a while and rebuild their fortress, anyway, since their leader is dead. It’ll be okay.” 

“You also don’t have an arm now, Shiro.” Keith growls, daring him to deny the vulnerability that it left him. He brushes past the silence anyway. “I still don’t like it. Can’t you just… wait a bit more?”

“...I could,” Shiro says. “But I think you guys just need to talk a little bit first, am I right? I’ll go say my thanks to your mother in the meantime, Lance.” And with that, he makes his leave.

Keith stares at the ground, and Lance does the same.

Ugh, it was so awkward, but he’ll have to come out with it eventually. So, might as well rip off the bandaid, right?

“I… I really don’t want you to leave, Keith.” He hears keith suck in a breath in front of him, and they finally link eyes.

“I don’t want to leave either.” Keith admits with a sigh. “But I can’t leave Shiro alone, not for a while anyway.”

Lance sighs. “You’ll visit me, right?” he rubs his neck. “Because, I know I told you, but I like you a lot, and I--” he pauses. “I think I love you. I know it’s only been a short while. Maybe I don’t, but I mean, I think I could. Might. You’re a really great guy, Keith, and I’m happy we met, even under the weird circumstances we did.” He frowns. “ And i know you said you liked me too, but I just can’t help wondering.. If now that Shiro’s back, you might just go your own way and… not return.. Or something...”

Keith grasps his hands, and their eyes find each other again. “I’m not leaving you.” he says. “I mean, I am… But not like that. And although I might be living with Shiro a bit far away, I’ll visit you, okay? It’ll be even easier when my wing heals. I can come see you every day.”

“I know…” Lance says. “But if you did want to stay for more than a few days, I have no problem with you staying with me. Mom said it was okay, too.” He squeezes Keith’s hands. When did they start holding hands, anyway? “She likes you a lot.”

Keith grins. “I like you guys a lot too.” and, avoiding his eyes, he says. “I… I think i might like you a lot too, Lance.”

Lance punches his shoulder. “I say I might love you and you tell me you _like-like me?_ Harsh.” 

Keith groans. “Fine, I love you too, okay? It’s just… this is new to me, as well.”

 _Oh._ Lance was kidding, but… _Oh._

And then they stand there, grinning at the ground while holding hands in the middle of the pathway. Lance risks it, and looks up at Keith, who has a little toothy, wobbly grin forming.

“We’ll work it out, okay? But I’ll definitely take you up on that offer. Staying here sometimes, that is. I just think, for tonight, I should return home with Shiro.”

Lance grimaces. “It’s probably is for the best. I’m gonna miss you a lot, though.”

“We’ll see each other again soon. Promise.”

“I know,” Lance says, and they touch foreheads. “I know.”

And then he does something he’s really not sure about, and leans forward, lightly kissing at Keith’s lips. Keith responds, making a noise into the kiss before deepening it, running a clawed set of fingers and dragging them softly through his scalp. 

Keith was a tough, brutal dragon, but he was soft and kind with Lance. Handled him delicately, which Lance liked. Those scale covered fingers brush past Lance’s cheek to touch at his jaw as they kiss, lips sliding together, and Lance can feel his face on fire.

They stay there for a while longer, hands wandering around each others’ waists, through hair (he’d always wanted to run a hand through Keith’s mop of a mullet.), and then touching jawlines and pulling each other closer. 

As they part, they breath in each others air as their foreheads bumps, blood rushing to their cheeks as they start to grin. Keith’s exhales feel like fire on his skin, but it’s somehow bearable. Their smiles are shy on both parts, but like they said, it’s new to them. He’s just glad Keith is in the same boat as him.

They don’t fully separate either, arms still around each other, but Lance is definitely blushing like crazy. As if to cover the moment, Keith coughs lightly, and asks, “Thought we weren’t doing kisses ever again?”

Lance can’t help it; he laughs. 

It’s a good end to the day. The moment fills his chest with bubbles and happiness and other warm things. It makes him want to laugh with joy, and be embarrassed at the same time. But even if it’s a bit embarrassing, it’s a good kind. A nice feeling to have. He likes it.

~

The whole family comes outside to hug them goodbye as they prepare their flight back. By flight, it would probably take less than half the time it took them by sea, but it definitely wasn’t within walking distance either. It was a few islands away, and Lance had a feeling the dragons would be taking some time to themselves after all this drama. Lance could wait. Probably.

His siblings dangle off Keith like necklaces, not pulling apart from him, clearly feeling the same he did. But it wasn’t permanent, he just had to remind himself that. 

Even though they only spent a few days together, it’s weird what a few life or death experiences will do to you. Maybe it would’ve been a gradual thing if not for the circumstances, but Lance definitely had a lot of feelings for Keith kogane. Even from the first time he saw him, when Keith told him to go away so he could deal with his problems by himself, Lance knew he was something special. He wanted to see more of him. 

After the family rotates in giving away hugs and wishing them a safe trip, Lance hesitantly approaches, and holds out the fixed necklace for Keith.

“You fixed it.” Keith says, then frowns. “But it’s different? Where’s the other--”

He’s referring to his necklace, which only has one shimmering moonstone on the end of it, now.

“I took it. The other gemstone.” He shuffles uncomfortably. “If you want it back that’s perfectly okay, but... “ He rubs his neck. Now that he’s saying it out loud, it’s pretty embarrassing. Especially to tell Keith this in front of his entire family. Nice.

“They’re a set, okay? When you have a sun and a moonstone, They’re a set for balancing each other out. They both have individual properties, but when they’re together, they have different meanings. They’re linked charms, and since they’re about balance, and work together in harmony…” He shrugs. “I thought it was sort of like us. I think we work really well together, and I thought it’d be nice if we had something to remember each other by for now. So we see each other again, and it’ll be like the two halves make a whole... You know?” 

His family is silent, thank everything, but Keith is silent too, which scares him a bit. 

Before he can possibly doubt himself anymore, Keith rushes forward to give him a final hug. Lance tells himself not to be sad, but when you grow up on an island with nobody but you’re family and a few friends, every relationship is important. Keith was really important to him.

“I’ll see you soon,” Keith whispers.

“I look forward to it. Rest up, okay? And if I find out you start flying on that wing before it heals, i’ll purposefully avoid you when you visit. I might even move farther away.”

Keith laughs at that. “Okay.”

When they pull back, he waves one last time at the two, before Shiro transforms into that magnificent for of beast, and Keith climbs on his back. 

And then they’re flying, and gone.

His mom pats his back, and turns him around into the inside of the house.

~

Two and a half months passes, but it feels like much longer. 

He doesn’t see Keith at all in that time, which worries him, but hey, they made a promise. He’d see him again.

Lance busies himself with potions and charms in the meantime, and ends up selling them to weary travellers who spend the night, and makes a bit of cash. Not that he has much to spend it on when he’s on an island with only a few others. 

But hey, money is money.

His brother ends up taking him on a trip to the mainland with regular humans. He takes that opportunity and ends up buying a new cape after his one from his journey with Keith is torn and ripped. The new one is a similar rich blue, but actually matches his height. He still liked the hand-me-down from before, but oh well.

He finds some other shops along the boardwalks, and just buys some more supplies in the end, and pockets the rest of the cash. Regular Human stuff is interesting, but he doesn’t need much of it, other than clothes and findings, if he’s honest.

Lance still worries about the two dragons on a day to day basis. He wishes he could just write to them, but he can’t exactly tell a couple of dragons to get a mailbox for his sake, and he’s pretty sure Keith would probably eat the messenger dove he sent anyway. Shiro seemed a little more regal than that, but who knows. He was a pretty terrifying beast, after all.

Lance doesn’t see much of Allura, either. But he can’t even blame her. He doesn’t want her hanging around him when she just got her dragon boyfriend back, anyway. He’s lonely, but he knows they’ll see each other and spread the latest gossip sooner or later.

He wishes he could just hear Keith’s voice, but the best he has for the time being is flipping runes every day trying to predict when Keith will show up and see him in person. Most of the time, it’s a no. 

For a while, he feels bad about it. 

He stops flipping them after a few weeks, because it just gets upsetting. He likes surprises, after all. And what fun would he be if he knew Keith was coming and prepared for it? 

Well, that--and he’s sick of being told first thing in the morning he won’t reunite with Keith for the day. So he’s leaving it up to fate this time.

But then there’s one day, one late afternoon as Lance is hauling in the days’ catches from his brother’s boating trip onto shore, that he feels a different movement on the waves. A strange wind making a pattern, and he tries not to let his breath catch, but fails.

He drops the net onto the shore, and ignores his brother’s yelling as he runs to higher ground, running up the mountain for a good view. He reaches those scorched burn marks from where they first met, small blades of grass growing through the soot and ashes, ironically enough, when he gets his first image of Keith.

On the distant sky, he sees wings. It’s blurry, and far away, but he knows.

Keith is a fast flier, even if Lance never got to see it himself before this-- he knows it’s him. Only keith would do swooping dives in the middle of the air only to spread his wings and glide again, right along the water’s surface.

He flies above the treetops, and comes in close enough, falling down like a soft feather from above lance, looking windswept, and terribly nervous. His hair was a mess and his eyes were hopeful.

He can’t blame Keith though, He’s nervous too.

Nothing much had changed about him, but he looked healthier. Happier. A scar over the hole in his wing, but brightly colored now with his regained health, scales shining brightly in the sunlight.

“Missed you, Dragonite. Welcome back.” Lance says, and rushes in for a kiss, because honestly, he deserves one after all this time and distance. Keith seems to feel the same, judging by the way those arms wrap right around him.

“Same here. Missed you a lot. Good luck getting rid of me again.”

Lance laughs. “As if i’d try.”

Keith grins and swoops in for another kiss.

They may not have met in the best of circumstances, but Lance has never been so happy on that little island. He could stay here for the rest of his life, if it was Keith. He’d go to the ends of the earth and back for him, too.

But whatever they did, they’d do together from now on.

And as they walk down to the house by the shore, their matching necklaces catch the fading sunset, sparkling bright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to those of you who have stuck around (and some from the beginning, oh my goodness) thank you SO much for putting up patiently with me posting chapters literally months apart. I'm so sorry I didn't update this a lot sooner, but life happened a lot, and I was working on art as well. I'm really hoping you guys enjoyed this chapter!!
> 
> there IS going to be a final epilogue chapter, but it'll be short, and based on a few years later with Keith & Lance (and a bit of Shiro/Allura) this is the end to the main plot though, so I hope you enjoyed, and thank you so so much for all the kudos and comments you've given me for this!! <333 
> 
> I do have a few more stories in the works, but I'm going to try to refrain from mulitchapter fics... because as we can see, I'm awfully slow at them.
> 
> Also, I'd love to know your thoughts on this last chapter, if you have the time. Thank you so so much for everything <3
> 
> Until next time!!

**Author's Note:**

> Hello :) please tell me what you think of this chapter, an whether I should continue or not! Any comments and kudos pretty much make my week.  
> And feel free to hmu with ur headcanons or scream about klance with me at tobioandthediamonds.tumblr.com !


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